The Stories
by Imitation Vanilla Flavor x2
Summary: Just a compilation of cute and or amusing stories, mainly centered around Phase 1. [Chapter 23: Noodle's eyes snap open at the sound of her cat's absolutely pathetic meowing in her ear.] -cover photo by the author.
1. Distant Stars

[Phase 1*

"Russel!"

The drummer awakens from his heavy slumber at the shrill call that had come from the other side of the hallway. The young girl who had yelled had only recently learned to say his name correctly, and usually when she did call it, it took a moment for the man to realize she was saying it due to her heavy accent. See, most of the time, the man, who had a heavy Brooklyn accent, himself, was easily able to understand most other accents. However, it annoyed him somewhat when she was speaking a bit of English but he couldn't tell.

Russel shakes his head, getting himself off of the worn-down bed located in his bedroom. Stifling a yawn, the man heads towards Noodle's room to see what she wants. Opening the door, the man takes a moment to gaze at the frame itself. The door frame was splintered at the bottom corner, causing Russel to sigh, not even wanting to know what caused said splintering.

"What's tha matter, baby-girl?" The man asked, gazing into the room with a sense of dread. He is immediately greeted with a tiny girl barreling into his legs while she speaks frenzied Japanese. Only able to translate a few words, Russ lifts up the girl so that he can make eye-contact, because God knows he doesn't feel like bending down to talk to the girl.

"Now, now, girl, slow your roll a little." Russel speaks again, this time raising his eyebrow with confusion.

"Ah! Uh.. Um..." The girl starts, trying to piece some form of English wording together to describe her current situation. A frown gracing her face, she finally spoke up. "Ah.. Loud.. Um.. Green.." Unable to come up with the correct describing word, the child puffs out her cheeks with annoyance.

"Loud, green... Are ya thinking about Murdoc?" Russel guesses.

"Mu-doc..." Noodle knows who that is, but it has nothing to do with what her problem is. Shaking her head rapidly, the girl crosses her arms. "Ah, um.." Looking deep in thought, the nine-year-old wrinkles her nose with frustration.

Russ holds back a chuckle at this. "Well, girl, can ya maybe show what it is?" He has the feeling that if she doesn't get her point across, Noodle won't go back to sleep, even if it is three in the morning.

A pause. "..Hai!" The child gestures that she wants to be set back down on the floor. After being obliged, Noodle immediately takes Russel's hand and drags him back into her room. "It's in here, huh?

A nod. Pausing, the tiny girl sits on her bed, patting the empty spot next to her and looking up at her father figure expectantly. Russ sits down, chuckling. "Wha-" Noodle makes a shushing noise, putting a finger to her lips. "Sh! Hear!" She instructs. Russel nods, focussing on the silence. Well, he would, if there weren't odd scratching noises in the wall. Was that a moan?

"Baby-girl, I think a zombie somehow got stuck in yo wall. Is that what you were tryna say?"

Noodle looks at the man with confusion.

Russ pauses a moment, pointing to the wall. "Uh, big green in there?" He says slowly.

The girl nods at this, looking at the wall the noises were coming from. "Hai. Big green," she points at herself, "scare Noodle."

A frown makes its way onto Russel's face. "Can't do much about it without wakin' up 'D, considerin' how light a sleeper he is."

Noodle perks up at his mention of the bluenette. "Too-chee?"

"Yeah, girl. He's sleepin' right now." He reminded her.

"Bed." Noodle says confidently, bringing a laugh from the large man. "Yeah." Russ agrees with a yawn. It's pushing on three-thirty AM, now.

More scratching in the wall makes Noodle look nervous. "Big green.. Um, uh, hurt Noodle. Try."

Russ takes a moment to gaze at the wall again. "I can see why you'd think that, yeah." Noodle slides closer to the large man, eventually climbing onto him. "Leave? Noodle leave... Uh.. Bed?"

"Hold on, baby, you can't stay up for much longer, or you'll be real grumpy in the morning." He says, knowing full well Noodle can't understand his words. Despite this, she nods and slouches over to rest her forehead on the man's oversized stomach. "Russel bed!" She giggles a bit as Russ puts his arms around her so she is lying down in them. Maybe she's a bit old to be held like a baby, but he knows she doesn't mind in the slightest.

Standing up with Noodle still in his arms, he bends down slightly to take hold of her stuffed monkey, then handing it to the child, who takes it happily. "Alright, baby-girl, you can sleep in my room, but only if you *actually* sleep." The man says, though aware that she would probably fall asleep any moment now just in his arms. Gazing down at the drowsy girl, he grins a bit. She has one arm wrapped around her monkey and her free hand rested on his shoulder. He can feel the gentle grip she has on the fabric of his shirt.

"Oyasumai." Noodle says softly, opening one eye to gaze at Russ. He smiles down at her as he opens the door to his own bedroom. "Good night to you, too, baby-girl," he replies, then pecking her forehead. He knows that she had already fallen asleep before he could cover her with his comforter.

A/N

Hello, world! I've been wanting to write some Gorillaz snap shots for awhile. Y'know, just for the hell of it. I don't have much in the way of ideas whenever I write a chapter, I just sort of make it up as I go along. That being said, I am open to any writing prompts suggested to me! So if you're sitting on a cute idea for me to write up for you, go ahead and send it in!! This first chapter was short, but I have the feeling that I'll make my future ones longer as I get more comfortable writing as the members of Gorillaz. So, sorry if my first few chapters have a bit of an OOC element to them, I'll be sure to work on it further.

Until next time,

Liz


	2. Pirate Jet

Phase 3*

Noodle stares at the newly released article about ... A new Gorillaz album? What is this? She is confused about how they could have possibly decided to release a new album without her.. Plastic Beach, was it? Well, the name is catchy. As she lays in the cruise ship bed trying to research more into this new development, (maybe it's just a rumor), a realization hits her. Who is playing guitar? Surely her boys could not have found another guitarist... Right? Russel wouldn't have allowed it.. Right? Shaking her head, Noodle shuts her laptop, stuffing it into a bag. Standing, she goes over to the window to gaze out at the endless sea, a strange sense of dread eating at the back of her mind. Her eyes narrowed as she thought she could make out the faint outline of... Were those jets? Out here? That's not right. And there's two of them, too, she realizes. Well, maybe there's an aircraft carrier this way that they're flying to? What else could it be, right?

Grumbling, Noodle begins to assemble all of her things, just in case. She learned a long time ago that she needs to follow her gut instincts whenever she got them. After learning years ago that she had been created to be a super soldier, she had decided that she would listen to any instinctual feelings of danger, just because she hasn't been when she has feelings like that before.

After having packed all of her belongings, (a small bag full), and double-checking that her guitar is safely in its case, Noodle prepares to locate a lifeboat to set her things in. Pulling her mask over her face, she grabs both bags and opens the door to her suite, stepping out into the corridor. This particular cruise ship is sailing to a destination she can't pronounce, (she has tried, definitely,) and she has no clue why there are no other passengers going to said place. Hell, even *she* doesn't know why she is going there. The coordinates of the destination are interesting, but other than that, she has no reason to.

As Noodle rushes down the corridor, she keeps an eye out for windows. The jets are fast approaching, and she is now convinced that the people piloting the aircrafts are definitely not friendly. After all, why would bomber jets be flying around here if they weren't preparing for some sort of attack?

Once Noodle locates the part of the ship where lifeboats are stored, she sighs. Trouble always seems to make its way to her, and quite frankly, it's frustrating. Then again, the ship ride up until this point has been awfully dull, she thinks as she inflates the boat. Placing her things in once the rubber is completely filled, she decides to wait just awhile longer before pushing the raft into the ocean due to the possibility that her suspicions are wrong and the planes change their courses. She is definitely hoping for it, as she would rather not have to deal with ... Whatever it is the pilots are planning on doing.

When the planes don't change course after five minutes, the teen decides that enough is enough and pushes her raft in, praying to whatever higher power exists that nothing gets ruined by the seawater. That guitar was expensive, damn it!

Noodle watches the raft drift for a moment before noting the direction of the wind and then quickly rushing back to her suite. Slamming the door behind herself, she sits down on the booth seat to catch a breath. The jet engines can be heard, now, and are nearly close enough to be flying overhead. Noodle is scowling, now, again wondering why shit like this always happens to her.

The entire ship shakes, now. Noodle supposes that the planes have begun firing at the enormous ship. There's a frantic knock on her suite door. With no immediate answer, the door opens. "Madam! The ship is under attack for pirates! I've been sent to escort you to the lifeboats." A man with a strange accent says urgently.

A split second later, Noodle is on her feet and taking a silver briefcase down from a shelf. ".. Madam?" There's a tone of nervousness in the man's voice.

She opens the case, revealing a machine gun. "Oh!" The man says with surprise. Noodle cocks it, storming out of the room. "Um, I.. Oh dear."

Once she is on the deck, Noodle, still scowling, begins firing up at the planes, littering the metal with holes. She finally manages to get some of her bullets into the cockpit of one of the fighter jets, causing it to immediately crash down into the ocean. Unfortunately, Noodle has her attention directed at the downed aircraft for too long. Hearing a strange whistling coming from above, the Japanese teen looks upwards to see a strangely familiar metal cylinder falling from the sky. "Screw you!!" She screams up at the remaining plane, abandoning her gun and leaping down over the edge of the boat.

The impact of water hitting her body after leaping down from a hundred or so feet in the air shocks Noodle, stunning her momentarily. Once she can move again, swimming away from the sinking vessel as quickly as she can. Seriously, though, she can't figure out why pirates would attack a mostly-empty cruise ship and not.. Pirate anything. Nothing had been taken, all the two planes had done was sink the boat. Now far enough away from the descending wreckage, Noodle treads water and looks around for the lifeboat she had sent off before the attack. Spotting it, she begins swimming to it.

Upon arrival, she lifts herself into the raft and immediately collapses with exhaustion. "Where do I go from here..?" Noodle asks aloud.

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Hello, again, world!

This scene will probably be familiar to practically everyone who reads it. Most of the dialogue is from the "On Melancholy Hill" video.

Thanks a lot to the reviewers who reviewed my first chapter. I was ecstatic when I saw them, I knew I had to write another chapter! Keep up the good work, friends! ;)

Hope your day has been well.

Until next time,

Liz


	3. Rain Is Falling

[ _Phase_ 1*

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The day has started off better than they do normally. Murdoc hasn't woken yet to beat up 2D, who is still asleep. Noodle's sitting at the table drowsily drinking strawberry milk, (Russel doesn't let her drink chocolate milk unless it's a weekend or a holiday), and Russ himself is drinking his coffee and reading the Daily Telegraph newspaper, as was customary in the morning.

Yes, today looked as if it would go well.

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"Toochee! Play! Out!"

Noodle demands. It is half-past twelve, now, and the young girl is restless. She is currently banging on 2D's bedroom door to get his attention until she hears a half-hearted groan coming from inside said room.

"Unh, why you bein so loud, Noodle luv, i's early.." The door cracks open a bit.

Noodle latches onto Stuart's long legs. "No! Out!" She cries, eyes filled with urgency.

"Uhh, why ya want to go out t'ere? I's dirty."

The response? "Out, play Noodle game!"

"Awl-right! I'll play, bu' at least le' me go to the loo, lil luv."

Noodle is satisfied with this answer, finally releasing the singer's legs. "Shoe, toochee." She reminds him, patting his hand affectionately before twisting around on her heel and skipping off towards her bedroom happily.

Kicking her door open, Noodle giggles a bit. She hadn't been sure if 2D would have actually wanted to play with her, but since he had agreed, the young child is absolutely ecstatic. The only issue was that she had no clue what game she should play with her friend. That's a bit of a problem, she realises.

"Baby-girl, ya need to brush hair before ya go out. It's a mess." Russ is standing in the girl's doorway, arms crossed. "Did dee say he would go with ya? You ain't goin out there alone."

Noodle nods her head rapidly. "Hai! Toochee play out and, uh, um, Noodle, hai." The girl pronunciates the English words slowly, obviously concentrating. Her nose scrunching up, the Japanese girl scratches her head. "Uhh, um, hair, hair okay, Russel?" She gazes up at her father figure expectantly.

"Hm, I don't think so. Bit too messy." He replies, picking up the girl. "You wanna do it, baby-girl?"

Russ asks, poking her nose. "Ah, Russel hair." Noodle answers with a nod, poking his nose back with a cheeky grin.

"Aight, I'll do it. Imma go get to brush, you get shoes on, got it?"

This caused the girl to tilt her head with confusion. "Shoes, baby-girl." He said again with a chuckle.

" Shoe!" The child agrees with another grin.

Pecking Noodle's forehead, Russel then sets the girl down on the floor. "Right, I'll be back in a minute. Don't get into trouble."

The child giggles again. "Kill much! Toochee play, uh, zombie!" She claps.

Russel nods. "We'll see, now go get shoes." Walking from the room, the drummer accidentally walks into Stuart. "Oh, uh, sorry, Russ." The singer apologises profusely. "Ih's fine, dee. But if I see even a scratch on Noodle when you two are done playin', imma break yo nose, you catch my drift?"

Stuart nods at this. "Don' worry 'bout 'er." He replies.

"Ih's my job to worry 'bout my kid. Now go get some god damned pants on." Russel points down the corridor in the general direction of 2D's room.

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After having gotten her shoes on and fumbled with the laces until they at least looked tied well enough, Noodle sits down on her bed and stares at the wall impatiently. Her legs are kicking through the air as she waits for Russ' return.

This is dull, so she gets up to see what all was around she might do while waiting. She _could_ brush her teeth, but that isn't any fun. Rather tedious, really.

Noodle opens her bedroom door. "Russel!" She yells down the corridor. "Noodle hair!"

There's a muffled reply from down the hallway, something along the lines of "hold on a moment."

A sigh comes from the girl. She stands on her toes to gaze up into the mirror over her dresser. Her hair is spiking up every which way, and her bangs are nearly over her eyes. "Kami arimasu kitanaidesu." She says to herself. (Rough translation: hair is messy)

She hears heavy footsteps approaching her bedroom. "Ah! Russel Noodle hair!" The nine-year-old says with excitement, barreling into Russel's legs at lightning speed. "Woah, baby-girl, slow yo roll a little." He says with a chuckle.

"Hair!" She points at the mess of black locks on her head when Russel detaches her from his legs. "Yeah, yeah, I know." He agrees. He begins brushing through the knotted mess, careful not to cause her any pain from the brush pulling too hard on said knots. Once finished, he ties the newly-combed hair into pigtails and clips the bangs from her eyes. "Better?" He asks.

"Hai. Noodle hat?" Noodle looks up at him expectantly.

"Right." Russ agrees, reaching over to her dresser. The drummer places Noodle's radio helmet on her head. "There, Noodle hat." He says with another chuckle.

Doing a thumbs-up, the Japanese girl then reaches up to pat Russ' hand. "Arigato!" She says happily, much appreciating the fact that her hair is out of her eyes. "Yo welcome, baby-girl. Go on and find Dee, aight?" He says.

"Hai! Toochee play Noodle game!"

"Yup." He pecks the top of her head. See ya in a bit."

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It was about ten minutes later when 2D actually appeared fully clothed and hopping on one foot as he put his second shoe on. "You ready to go ou', Noodle luv?" The bluenette asks.

"Toochee out! Play!" Noodle nods in reply. She stands up and points to the door. "Awl-right, awl-right, le's go, then." He says with a grin.

"Get, uh, um, bat.. Hit." She sticks her arms out and starts walking around with a rigid back, starting to make groaning noises. "Oh, zombies? Awl-right."

Noodle nods again. "Hai. Uh, kill."

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Moments later, the two head out the front door of Kong, both wearing oversized sunglasses and wielding aluminum bats. 2D had decided that he would wear an old combat helmet, "I need the rest of m' brain, fanks." He had said to the girl. Russel had come downstairs to see the two off. "Not one scratch on her," he warned 2D again, who had nodded nervously, stammering about how he heard the man loud and clear.

So now the two are standing side-by-side in the ginormous graveyard. No zombies are out just yet, but the sky was darkening due to thunderstorm clouds approaching. That also means that the zombies are preparing to come out, fooled by the prematurely dark skies. The ground can felt shaking as the neighborhood of zombies slowly dig themselves back out of their graves.

"D'ey're coming up, Noodle luv!" 2D says, looking both excited and nervous. "I's coming up!"

Noodle notices a strange green hand reaching up out of the rotting soil over near the bluenette's right foot. "It d-ere!" Noodle yells, striking a combat pose.

The second the zombie pulls itself out of the ground is when thunder rolls overhead, making the entire situation seem much more ominous. Suddenly, seemingly every grave has a zombie pulling itself out from the ground. "Toochee kill!" Noodle yells, hitting one atop the head.

2D laughs, following her lead. With more thunder comes more zombies and more of the rancid scent of rotting flesh. About another hour passes before it begins to pour down rain on the filthy earth, immediately drenching the two bandmates.

Noodle finds this hilarious and begins to ignore the zombies entirely, searching out puddles to leap in. 2D, on the other hand, finds the rain uncomfortable, but doesn't think it will do much harm to let the child play in the rain for awhile. The zombies have decided with what little thought process they had left that they'd best avoid the pair if they wanted to stay 'alive.'

It was getting on four o'clock when Noodle decided that she was so cold she couldn't stand being out in the rain anymore, which 2D agreed with fully. They were both drenched to their bones, and had missed out on lunch.

"Luv, are yew ready to go 'ome?" He asked through chattering teeth.

"Hai, uh, cold." Noodle agrees, also showing him her scraped up elbows and hands. She had fallen more than twice, but each time had found it funny and kept on playing. "Water Noodle." 2D laughs at this, though feeling nervous about how scraped up she did get. To be fair, he was bruised everywhere, but that wasn't an excuse to Russ.

Noodle takes 2D's hand, pulling him through the rain towards the studio. The bluenette could feel the child shivering violently and offered to pick the dripping child up, which she agreed to gratefully.

He is sure that he will wind up with a cold after this, but doesn't really care, quite honestly. As he opens the door to Kong Studios, he realises that the girl was sleeping in his arms, having obviously been too tired to resist the temptation. Laughing a bit at this, he shuts the door behind himself as quietly as he can. He doesn't have the heart to wake her just yet.

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 **Hello again!**

 **This story is almost double the length of my last two chapters, I hope it isn't too long. Tell me, do you all want longer chapters like this? Or maybe the shorter ones? Leave a review and let me know your thoughts on the matter.**

 **Hope you all are having a good day, I know I am!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Liz**

 **EDIT: Thanks to the Guest review for pointing out the flaw in my editing! Props to you, my friend.**


	4. He Feel Eel

[ **Mid-phase 1]**

It's 16:03, currently. He shouldn't have to deal with this. Hell, Murdoc shouldn't have to deal with a lot of the shit he does deal with. He doesn't even own his soul anymore, for fuck's sake, so why does he have to deal with being ill?

"Mu-doc!" There's a loud banging on the plastic door of his Winnebago. "Mu-doc dead!?" The familiar voice of Noodle is heard.

"Ah, christ, my head, stop that bloody banging!" Murdoc's voice is hoarse. She notices this oddity.

"Open, uh, um, open door!" She demands.

"Go 'way! I don't want any visitors!" He croaks at the girl.

There's the sound of footsteps becoming distant after a moment. "I'm surprised that worked." The Satanist says to himself, resting his forehead back on his hand. He is clutching an empty bottle that had once held rum, having downed the golden liquid hours ago. Still, he hasn't registered that the bottle is empty.

He sits in silence for awhile, said silence only broken by the sound of his own coughs and the distant cawing of a flock of crows. Maybe five minutes pass before more banging on the door of his Winnebago begins. "What d'ya want with me? I'm _busy!_ " Murdoc croaks with severe annoyance.

"Open up, Muds." A deep, gruff voice calls out. "Baby-girl here said that you sound dead and dragged me down here, so at least lemme see what the problem is."

Murdoc decides that he would best not reply. After all, if you don't react, maybe they'll go away. Always worked in Stoke on Trent when those blokes tried to get on his nerves when he wasn't in the mood for a fight.

However, this only made the banging louder. "Murdoc, imma break this damned door down if you don't open it yoself." Russel's voice commands from outside.

"Go 'way!" The man tries feebly. "I'm just fine, for fuck's sake!"

"Imma count to five and this door better be opened up. One,"

"Go 'way--"

"Two,

"I don't need you to--"

"Three,"

"For Satan's sake, Russ-"

" _Four,_ "

There's the sound of frantic rushing over to the door and it slams open, nearly hitting Noodle in the process. "See, I bloody told you, I'm just fine!" Murdoc attempts a lighthearted laugh but fails miserably, instead coughing until it sounds like he's about to regurgitate a lung.

"Mu-doc dead," Noodle points out helpfully, having gotten over the momentary shock of nearly being hit with a door.

"Muds, you do look dead." Russel himself even looks surprised, his pale eyes wide as can be.

"I'm just a little ill is all," The green-skinned man begins, "and you two," another cough makes itself known, "ar **e** not helping the matter, so sod off!"

Noodle frowns, not liking the way Murdoc's voice is shaking. The usually-confident voice is now reduced to coughs and awfully feeble complaints, and she is _not_ happy with that. The young girl stomps over to the bassist and latches onto his arm in an attempt to make him stop shaking. After all, the way to help someone stop shaking is to warm them up, right?

"Love, what do ya think you're doing?!" Murdoc tries to shake off the girl from his arm, though to no avail.

"Mu-doc, uh, cold, um, shake." She replies, looking up at him with obvious worry in her eyes. "Noodle, um, warm. . . Is warm."

Russ sighs. "Baby, yo gonna get sick, too, if you get too close," he warns.

Murdoc, on the other hand, finds it quite funny. "What, are you trying to make ol' uncle Murdy feel better?"

Noodle pauses for a moment before nodding at this. "Noodle fix."

"Well, how nice of you, huh?" Murdoc carefully lifts up the tiny girl into his arms, a small grin gracing his face. The Japanese child lets out a small giggle, nodding again.

"Guessin' she missed you, Muds. It's been days since she's seen ya, ya know. Maybe even a week." Russel shakes his head. He knows trying to detach the kid would be pointless and make her scream, so now he is trying to figure out how to make her let go of the sick man of her own accord.

"Well, who wouldn't miss me?" He says, though his voice is uncharacteristically soft. Usually, Murdoc will claim that children are the bane of his existence and all that, but he isn't fooling anyone if he tries to claim that he doesn't have a soft spot for a certain little guitarist. He can't ever bring himself to raise his voice to her, nevermind his fist, and that's a lot for someone such as he. The kid knows it, too, and uses it to her advantage when she can.

"Uh, Noodle, um, uh, fix Mu-doc? Um, all better Mu-doc?" The girl blinks up at the Satanist with curious eyes, her left hand firmly clutched onto the man's filthy nightshirt. Not that she really notices it is filthy, it just smells like Murdoc, and she's okay with it. And if something smells like Murdoc, it's bound to smell a little off, right?

"Oh, yeh, I'm all better, now." Murdoc shifts the kid in his arms so he can cough and it isn't in her face. "So you can stop saying that I've gone and died, you got that?"

"Huh?" Noodle asks, looking over at Russ for a translation.

Russel scratches his head when he notices the kid looking at him. "Uh. Murdoc's not dead." He says slowly. He's not really in the mindset to be able to translate into Japanese, no matter how simple the words.

"Hai, Noodle fix." She agrees with a nod. Noodle stares at Murdoc as if he might vanish at any moment. He's awfully pale, even more than normal. The current shade of his skin reminds her of mint ice-cream.

"Well, thank you, girlie." He chuckles despite himself.

"Mu-doc okay?" Noodle asks, patting his cheek with a look of concern on her face. "Uh, um, shake. Much." She adds.

"Oh, I can't say I am, love, but give it a couple hours and I'll be back to normal, okay?" Murdoc is indeed shaky; whether it is being caused by feeling chilly or the lack of nourishment, (save for a spot of rum), is unknown to him, but he suspects it's a mixture of both.

Noodle doesn't seem satisfied with this answer. "Not, uh, um, not good Mu-doc," she tries to protest. "Cold Mu-doc bad, uh, dead."

"Does she even know what dead means, Russ?" He asks the drummer.

This gets a shrug from Russel. "No idea. Don't even know where she got that word from. Probably from Dee, it don't come up in any conversation I have with her."

Murdoc shrugs. "Not bloody dead." He repeats, turning his head to cough again.

"Noodle, uh, fix Mu-doc? Make fixed."

"Gee, you'd think I'm broken, the way she's talkin'." Murdoc laughed. "Yeah, yeah, do what ya want, girlie."

Noodle nods, gesturing that she wants to be set back down on the ground. Once obliged, she looks up at Russel. "Noodle fix Mu-doc." She tells him with a wide smile.

"Okay, baby, but he better not get you sick. If he does, I'll be real pissed." He warns half-jokingly. "Muds, hows about you come upstairs where there's a heater and blankets? One in here is obviously broken." Russel glances around inside the filthy Winnebago, shaking his head with disgust.

"No fuckin' way am I-- actually, Russ, it's not the worst idea you've ever had, no."

"Well, then, let's go, you won' get any better down here."

Noodle hums, taking the hands of both her boys. "Mu-doc, um. Okay. Good Mu-doc."

"Yes, quite. Plus, I'm all outta rum. Can't have that, can we?" Murdoc says with a sly grin.

"No rum. It won't help you an' your damn illness, you know." Russel glares at Murdoc, who pretends not to notice.

"No rum? Well, I never!!" Murdoc retorts angrily.

"You heard me right. No rum." Russ repeats with a roll of his eyes. Though, the effect is lost on the others, mostly due to the fact that he has no pupils.

"FUCK that! I'll have me rum if I want it! Ha! No rum? No rum, my arse!"

Noodle looks up at the two, her gaze flicking back and forth between the two men. As the argument carries on, her annoyance grows. Yanking down on both men's arms so that they are bent down close to her height, she yells, "Hey! No fight! Fight, uh, fight no good!!!" The child glares at the two of them with more than a bit of anger in her dark-brown eyes, causing even Murdoc to flinch.

"Be sorry! Say it!" Noodle orders. She's obviously quoting Russel. He usually orders- no, forces, Murdoc and 2D to apologise to each other if they're fighting in front of Noodle. "She don't gotta see this, so don't make her!" He'll usually say with exasperation.

She's now gazing at the two men impatiently, tapping her foot as 2D does when he's in the same mood. An obvious yet subtle sign of how much she picks up from her boys, and Russ makes a mental note of this.

"Yeah, uh, sorry, baby-girl," Russel says, highly amused by her behavior. Sometimes he forgets how old she really is.

"Okay, Russel, good. Noodle A nod accompanies this statement, followed by a peck on Russel's cheek.

"Mu-doc. Sorry. Uh, speak." Noodle orders with a glare in the green man's direction.

"Why should I have to-" At seeing Russel crack his knuckles meaningfully, Murdoc gives in. "Oh, bugger. Fine, love, I'm sorry."

Noodle responds with a peck on Murdoc's cheek, too. "Noodle, uh, fine. Good Mu-doc. Good good. "

"Um, yes, I'm good. . .?" He seems a more than a little dumbfounded with this _rather_ strange child.

Noodle nods her approval, now resuming pulling the two towards the lift. The men oblige her silently, Murdoc still trying to understand what had just happened, and Russel grinning like an idiot. He's so damn proud of this kid.

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Greetings!

This chapter is dedicated to the release of the new Gorillaz album (Humanz)! It's tomorrow!!!

I preordered the deluxe edition as soon as preorder was an option, and I am unimaginably excited for it. Now I just have to wait (im)patiently for the thing to be delivered. Fuckin hell. But! Question time! What's your favourite song in the album? Mine is The Apprentice. Or maybe Andromeda. Perhaps even We Got The Power. Hard to say, my favorites keep changing around.

It's the first chapter I've written with Murdoc, so if he's OOC, you can either blame it on him being ill or me being inexperienced. Either way, let me know if there are any gaping holes in the dialogue.

Thanks again to the guest who let me know about the editing error in my last chapter, I'll be sure to avoid it in the future. Like I said, major props to ya!

Does anyone get the reference I made in the title?

Hope you all are doing well!!

Until next Saturday,

Liz


	5. He Ain't Got a Chance

[Phase 2]

The sun burns bright in the desert. It's hot enough there by the last day of the Dirty Harry music video shooting that none of the band members want to move. Hell, it isn't even twelve in the afternoon yet and temperatures are already peaking thirty-nine degrees Celsius. Needless to reiterate, it's really damned hot.

The film crew had been awake bright and early, (as they had been throughout the entire week), but none of the members of Gorillaz have showed up. The crew are beginning to wonder if the group are even awake yet.

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"For the last bloody time, put sun lotion on!" Murdoc yells, nearly angry to the point where he might just be ready to stab Stuart in the bloody throat.

"I don't think I need it! It's the last day! You're not me dad, stop acting like you are!" Stuart seems as if he's reached the same point as Murdoc, temper wise, surprisingly enough. Heat does strange things to people.

"Shut your mouths! No fighting!" Noodle yells from across the room. She's lying on the rather lumpy hotel bed. The poor child hasn't gotten a lick of sleep throughout the week, it's been much too hot. So, she just lays there when it's dark, lamenting the long-gone nights in which she had been able to sleep for as long as she wanted. Who cares if it had been less than a week since said nights, she is exhausted, miserable, not to mention the fact that she's constantly sweaty. The filthy motel's air conditioner is broken, so her only escape from the relentless heat are cold showers, and there are only so many of those one can take in a single day.

And then there's Russel. He's been in a bad mood all week to everyone but Noodle, luckily for her. The heat isn't good for him, to put it lightly. Usually, during a tour, he'll be the one to wake his bandmates, make sure everyone's hydrated, and just all around is very productive in the mornings. But right now, he's sleeping at any chance he gets and hardly moves around at all when they're not filming the video. The man has somehow managed to fall asleep in a hard, wooden rocking chair over by the hotel room window. He's been that way all day, and hasn't made any moves save for adjusting the position of his head; and there's also the occasional snore added in.

So, yeah, it's not a good situation for any of the band members.

Murdoc rubs his forehead agitatedly. "Look, we don' have time for this. We're already late, I can' 'ave you causing trouble, dullard!! It ruins my image!"

"Well, then. I don't have to wear sun lotion!" Stuart says again.

Murdoc slaps the singer atop the head at this, finally at wits end. The singer whimpers afterwards, putting his arms over his head quickly. "Put the sun lotion on right this instant, faceache. Right-bloody-now, or I can and will break your arm."

2D nods frantically, scrambling off towards the bathroom to locate the lotion. The whimpering doesn't cease, and Murdoc is pretty sure that he's crying again, but just shrugs it off. "Fuckin' child is what he is," the Satanist mutters, scowling.

"Murdoc! That is not an excuse! No hitting Toochee!" Noodle yells again, though the kid still doesn't have the energy to go kick the bassist in the shins like she normally would in this situation. So, instead, she throws the nearest object. Which happens to be a pillow. That doesn't have the affect she wants it to, so she groans in defeat and flops back down on the bed.

"What's gotten into you, eh?" Murdoc grumbles, walking over to the bed and sitting down next to the collapsed twelve-year-old. "Not feeling too well?"

Noodle doesn't reply immediately, trying to piece together an understandable sentence in her head. "It is too hot. My head is hurting and I don't like it when you hurt him." She says, her voice forced.

"Your head's a boy? What's his name, Shaun?" Murdoc says jokingly.

"You do know what I mean, so stop pretending you do not." Noodle's eyes close for a moment.

"Hmph." Murdoc mumbles, looking over at the girl. "You know it's only because I don't want the dullard to get burnt all red and wrinkly like a dry tomato, little dove. He won't listen otherwise, the dumbarse."

Noodle opens one eye to gaze up at Murdoc disdainfully. "It is no excuse to hit him."

"Hmph." He says again. "Have ya been sleeping at all, lovely?" Murdoc tilts his head down at her curiously.

Noodle shakes her head. "Too hot. And the children's choir in the room to the right will not be quiet ever, so I have not slept through the whole week."

"Ohh." Murdoc is silent after her explanation for a few beats. "I'm sorry, I really didn't expect shooting a video in the desert to be.. Dunno. This fuckin' hard. I just thought, 'oh, wouldn't it look right smart if we shot Dirty Harry off in a desert somewhere?,' ya know?" Murdoc sighs with defeat, although an optimistic part of him deep inside of his filthy, rotting mind seems to be convinced that the trouble with the heat will be worth it in the end.

"I see.."' Noodle's eyes are closed, again. "Let us not do this again, okay? No more desert after today." She suggests with a small grin, the kind Murdoc oh so loves to see on her face. It's the kind of grin that lets people know that there's still some fight left in you and you aren't quite done with the situation just yet.

"No more desert, I swear." The man returns the grin.

"Good. Say, do you have a towel nearby?" Noodle asks with a giggle, her eyes now fixed on something behind Murdoc.

"No, why d'you ask?" He inquires, confused. The green man follows the child's gaze.

2D has arrived. He's so coated in sun lotion that excess drops of the white substance are falling onto the carpetting. "Here, happy now?" The bluenette asks, a cheeky grin on his face.

" _FACEACHE_!!!"

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Hello, yet again, readers!

I couldn't resist writing another story immediately after listening to the new album. That's right, this whole chapter was written in under half an hour.

So, yes, you get two (and perhaps even three) new chapters this week! Be excited!

Thanks to the guest who reviewed; I appreciate your opinions on my writings!

Next week, I'll be travelling down from London to go visit my account-mate/best mate, Lil, in North Carolina! I'll also be going to see one of my favourite bands, Avenged Sevenfold, in concert at the Carolina Rebellion music fest! So if any of you happen to be there and you see a tall girl with extremely long blue hair and is speaking with an accent, don't hesitate to approach her, just because it's probably me!

The rest of you, don't fear, I'll still be around to update.

Hope you all are doing well!

Until next time,

Liz


	6. Mr Softy's Balloon Race

[Phase 0]

It's late at night, perhaps even very early morning.

It's been three weeks since Murdoc Niccals had kidnapped Russel Hobbs from his record shop, and actually, Russ has rather enjoyed said kidnapping, once he'd been given the reason for it. The bastard may be insane, but he definitely has a really damned good band in the works, yeah. According to the green man, he had even sold his soul so he could have the rights to Satan's bass, El Diablo, as Murdoc so lovingly calls it. If that's not dedication to a band, Russ doesn't know what is.

So, right now, as previously mentioned, it's really late. Russ is currently sitting at the dinner table alone, smoking a fag. Unfortunately for him, he's unable to sleep due to the souls residing in his person. The souls of his murdered friends. He knows they're present, but he doesn't know how exactly many souls are actually there. If he tries to sort through them, all he gets is the pain of phantom gunshot wounds through his body. He doesn't want deal with that at all again, since it turns out that gunshot wounds hurt like a bitch.

He is positive, however, about one soul in particular being in his body. His best mate, brother, and partner-in-crime, Del. And now, as it turns out, his literal soulmate. The up-and-coming rapper had been shot through the head by the drive-by-ers, dying immediately on impact.

"What are you doin' awake, Russ?" A soft-spoken voice says from the doorway. "It's late, did you know?"

"Their souls are restless, Stu. I dunno. Dunno what to do with it." Russel replies to the young man, not turning around to look at the singer.

"Oh, oh dear." Stuart sits down on the chair across from Russel. His hair is sleep-tousled, blue spikes sticking up every which way. The kid looks like he hasn't slept in a week, poor guy. His purely black eyeballs seem to be fixed on something other than Russel, but the drummer knows his attention is focussed on trying to figure out what to say next.

They sit in silence as 2D lights his own fag. "I'm real sorry you gotta deal with dis, Russ. I dunno what exactly to say 'bout it, quite honestly." He looks at Russ, finally. "You do look like hell, though. Guessing it's not the first time you gave had to, yeah?" The bluenette pauses for a moment. "Deal with it, I mean." He clarifies.

"No. It happens more often than not, it isn't anything new." Russel answers, rubbing his forehead with his free hand. "I think Del's upset about.. Well, uh, he probably has too much energy in here to jus' fuckin' sit around and mourn his own death." The man explains as he shakes some of the ashes from his fag into a makeshift ashtray. "That's probably it. I'd be the same way if it were me possessin' him. But the rest of the guys.. I dunno, they always did follow in Del's lead," Russel shrugs.

"That would make sense, yeah." Stuart replies, still obviously deep in thought. "Maybe they need a bit of a talking to?" The singer suggests.

"Dee, they're ghosts. They sure as hell don' need a fuckin' lecture, they wouldn't listen; that's for damn sure." Russ sighs again. He's getting too old for all these late nights, even if he is hardly twenty-six.

"Oh." Shrugging slightly, Stuart eyes his best friend with obvious worry. After taking a long drag from the fag he's holding, he says, "Either way, mate, it's not healthy for you to have all these nights without any sleeping, you know?" He scratches his head, a frown taking the place of the younger man's usual absentminded grin.

"Stu, I know that. I just don't know how to fix the problem!" Russel exclaims, causing Stuart to flinch. Russ doesn't normally raise his voice, no, and the poor guy doesn't know how to handle it.

"Sorry, dee. Didn't mean to yell, it's just frustratin' me a little, ya catch my drift?" The large man apologises.

"It's okay. I get tha. J-jus' wasn't qui' expecting it." Stu stammers.

"M." Russ replies, resting his forehead back on his hand again.

"Do.. Do ya want me to stay awake with you?" Stuart asks, the frown still not having left his face.

"Nah, man, you can go back to Paula, I'll be all right in the mornin'." He turns to gaze at 2D for a moment.

"Russ, uh.. Um.. I want you to know that I'm here for you. My advice is to stop trying to fight back the spirits. Maybe they're trying to tell you something."

A small smile makes its way onto the drummer's face. "Yeah, yeah, I might try that. But, I think another problem is that I... I don't know where to go from here. It's 'ard, ya know? I miss my friends. I'm just thinkin'.. Why did they have to go? Why couldn't it'a been me to die instead of 'em?"

Stuart considers this thoughtfully. "Maybe.. No, definitely.. It wasn't' your time, Russ. Maybe they went in a really, really bad way, but that just means you gotta live the rest your life in the best way you can. Y'know, as a memorial to the lives that were taken too early. They'd want it so tha' yew were happy, wouldn't' they?"

Russ is staring at Stuart like he's just grown a new arm. The man is utterly speechless.

"Plus," 2D adds, "you're smart enough, I'm sure that you will be just fine, in the end." He says, standing up. "Well, I'll be off, then." Yawning, he starts over to the doorway, though he knows he won't be going back to bed, just yet. He has something to do before he can go back to Paula.

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Russel wakes up with a start. There's a painful crick in his neck, though that's to be expected if one falls asleep with their head rested down on a wooden table. It's six in the morning, right now, which means that he's only had two hours of sleep.

Sighing, Russel rests his chin on his left palm, eyes still closed. Using his free hand, he feels around for his box of fags. However, instead of fags, his hand finds its way to a. . . Cassette tape? He's positive that it hadn't been there before he fell asleep.

Finally opening up his eyes, they focus down on this newfound cassette. There's a white label on it with something scribbled on it in blue ink. *'For Russel', it reads. The man immediately recognises the handwriting as 2D's.

Standing up, he goes to find his walkman, sure he's left it in one of the cabinets in the den. Once Russ locates it, he returns to the kitchen and sits back in his chair. Putting the cassette in its slot, he presses play on the walkman.

There's an odd instrumental recorded with questionable quality that begins playing, and Russ is ready to push the stop button when he hears 2D's singing voice start on the track.

"Why can't you be near? Never one would appear, where do we go from here, where do we go?"*

Russel is stunned. He doesn't dare move, he's too drawn into these words. The editing of the vocals in the track is less-than-adequate, but Russ doesn't mind.

"If the last one isn't there, and it's all gone . . . But if the last one wasn't there, it'd all be wrong. . ."*

The man's fighting tears, now. He'd needed this.

"Sometimes you turn around, sometimes you're lost but not found. . . Where do we buy the day, when we go?"*

Here come the tears.

"If the last one isn't there, and it's all gone. . . But if the last one wasn't there, it'd be all wrong. . ."*

Russ sits there silently for a while after the promptly-made track has ended. He's filled with some sort of emotion he can't put a name to. Something like nostalgia mixed with longing, and maybe even a bit of hope.

He knows that he'll be eternally grateful to his friend for this. He's so calm, now, so peaceful. There's no inner-turmoil, to speak of. It's like this song is magical or enchanted or some shit. Even if the whole thing is less-than-perfectly executed, he's positive that it's more powerful than any alcohol he could have consumed; more powerful than any drugs he could have taken.

Russ is sleeping again in a matter of minutes, a peaceful expression on his face. At some point during the day that follows, Murdoc brings a comforter up to the kitchen and covers his drummer with it. He had been sure to help make the musical tones of 2D's song as calming as he could with what he had had to work with, and was glad to see that Lards was finally resting. He'd even been a bit impressed that 2D had managed to make the song title like it was taken from a dream, *'Mr. Softy's Balloon Race.'*

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Hello, yet again!

I had read in the YouTube comments on a certain song video that 2D had written that song to try and help Russel out of his depression, so naturally, I had to write how it played out. It's actually canon, more-or-less. ;)

Needless to say, I'm a bit surprised that there aren't any fics about it. I hope I did the story the justice it so very much deserves.

So, I obviously don't own the lyrics. If you're interested in what the song does sound like, put *"Mr. Softy's Balloon Race"* into the YouTube search bar. It's probably one of the least-known Gorillaz songs out there, and I don't even remember how I found out about it. Seriously, that song is a piece of perfection. So lovely, yet so very obscure.

Hope you've enjoyed the extra updates, I know I've enjoyed writing them!

My Humanz favorites are Charger and Busted and Blue.

Have a great week, okay?

Until next time,

Liz


	7. Earth Forever, Hand in Hand

[Phase 1]

Knocks sound from the other side of Murdoc's closed door. It's at an unholy hour of the night, but she doesn't see any alternatives. 2D has a girl 'round, so Noodle wouldn't dare go near his room; and Russel just hasn't been feeling well at all today, so she doesn't want to disturb him, either. So that leaves Murdoc, and she hopes that the slightly-scary man won't mind if she intrudes. It's only been a week and a half since she first arrived at Kong Studios, and she still hasn't gotten used to the odd noises that sound at night. They don't help with her night terrors, not one bit. So, here she is trembling violently in front of Murdoc's Winnebago and glancing around at every other moment around the car park to check for demons or zombies. Those two should be synonymous, she thinks.

Light floods through the cracks in the door frame suddenly. A second later, the door is slamming open to reveal a sleep-deprived looking man. "What?!" He demands, glaring out at the nothingness at his eye-level. His soulfire eye is flickering as it usually does when Murdoc's mad. He's confused, now, until he hears sniffling coming from lower down towards the floor. He fixes his mismatched pupils on the terrified child. She's very obviously fighting back tears, her trembling only increasing to the point where it seems like it might be painful.

"Uh oh. . What's the matter, little dove?" Murdoc asks, all anger forgotten at being presented with the state of the tiny girl.

"Mu.. U-uh, u-um, noise. . .uh. . ." She can't think of the English words for 'night terror', so the child just wipes at her teary eyes roughly.

Murdoc thinks he feels a tinge of sympathy. He knows that kind of facial expression from.. Well.. Seeing the same expression on his own face after another bloody nightmare about some sort of demon that had come to visit. The actual demon always differed, but the ending was always the same; his bandmates died and he was left alone in the world again. That is one of his only real fears, though he won't really admit it to himself. "Bad dream, eh?" He asks her softly, crouching down to wipe away a tear that is rolling down Noodle's cheek.

"H-hai. . ." The child replies with a sniffle. "Gomen- ah.. Um.. S-sorr-ee.."

Murdoc shakes his head at this. "Come on, then, love." He stands up straight and steps aside, shutting the door once Noodle comes into his Winnie. "There there, don't cry, now. ." He takes her into his arms gently. The child is shaking so much he's almost convinced that she's trying to start her own earthquake. "Alright, love, it's okay, I have you now." His voice is gruff as always, but it's somehow soothing to her.

Noodle buries her face in the crook of his neck, not really understanding his words, but still finding solace in the sound. She breathes in his scent, the smell of too many cigarettes and cheap cologne. She decides that she likes his smell. It's unique.

He's petting her hair with his free hand as he sits on his bed. It's just some sort of instinct, almost like his inability to turn her away when she's like this. "Do you want to talk about it, Noods?" He asks. Murdoc dims the lights a bit from where he sits, he doesn't like it to be so bright in here at night.

Noodle shakes her head no. "Uh.. Scar-ee." Her voice is already a bit steadier, now.

"Yeah, I thought as much." He reclines down on the bed, and she adjusts herself so that she's lying on him with her head rested on his chest. She loves the sound of his heart beating, it's like a bassline pumping life through him.

There's silence for a long moment before Murdoc says, "Well, I'm going to sleep. Did ya want to stay down here a while, pet?" He keeps his voice gentle. "I won't mind too terribly if ya do, I s'pose."

Noodle looks up at him with tired eyes, a grateful smile on her lips. Now that's just not fair, he thinks as he feels a sort of stab in his soul at the sight of that smile. He'll keep the lights on low for her. He supposes it'll probably be easier for her to sleep with them on.

"Mu-doc love." Noodle chirps drowsily, her hand setting on his cheek momentarily. Her words are slurring together, Murdoc realises. He runs a hand through her hair gently, smiling back at her.

"Hush, now, lovely, go to sleep. You're safe." Promises the bassist. He pulls the covers over himself and the child, careful not to disturb her position on his front.

"Mu-doc okay.?"Noodle asks, her eyes still fixed on him. The girl withdrawls her hand from his cheek to rub at her eyes again. There's red rimmed around them, Murdoc notices. "What? Oh, I'm just fine." He replies, adjusting the pillow under his head.

"A ouch." The girl touches her finger to a small cut above Murdoc's right eye lightly. He makes an 'ohh' sound. "It's just from me fuckin' around with me rod." He explains. Noodle knows about his rod, he likes to use it to whack zombies that get too close to him. He carries it around Kong often, and he sometimes even uses it to kill hoards of zombies when he gets angry and 2D isn't around to be his punching bag.

Noodle frowns. "Ow?" She asks. "It ow much?"

"Uh.. What? Oh, y'mean does it hurt?" He wonders, wiping a stray hair from Noodle's forehead. "Nah, not really." He lies. Really, he had had a lump the size of a large coin directly underneath where the cut is for about a week after he had gotten the injury, and it had still been hurting like hell until this morning. Right now it's just a dull throb, easily ignorable.

"Ahh." The girl doesn't seem convinced, but she's too tired to argue with him about it. She does, however, seem determined not to fall asleep just yet. She likes this nice, gentle Murdoc, and doesn't want to stop talking to him, or rather stop listening to him talk. His gruff voice is very soothing to her at the moment, especially now that he isn't currently barking out insults left and right. "So sad, hurt.. Uh.. Hurt Mu-doc sad." She reaches for his other hand, the one that's not stroking through her hair.

He seems surprised by this action, but lets her pull his arm into her own. She then holds onto it as if it's a stuffed animal of some sort, which the man finds a bit amusing. "Hm? I guess, but shite like that happens-" a yawn cuts him off. "-happens quite a lot more than you might think." The man finishes.

"Ohh." Noodle processes this in silence for a moment. "No good." She sighs, now sliding her hand into Murdoc's and squeezing it gently. He squeezes back, a soft chuckle escaping his lips.

"Okay, you need to sleep, lovely." He urges again with another chuckle.

"Hm.. Mu-doc, uh, Mu-doc Noodle bed." She giggles.

Murdoc doesn't know how to react to being compared to a bed, but instead pecks the top of the tiny child's head. "Yeah, I am, aren't I?" He replies, shifting her into the cavity between his right arm and his chest. Noodle sighs with contentment, her head rested comfortably on his chest.

"Noodle bed." The girl's eyes are finally closed. She knows it's safe here with her Murdoc and is letting her mind drift off somewhere towards the Cloud of Unknowing.

"Mhm, sleep well, dove." Murdoc says. He doesn't mind the extra weight on his chest at all. He falls back to sleep with the scent of artificial candyfloss and strawberries filling his senses.

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Hello, all. I wrote this little snippet very late at night. Like 04:00 late. I'm sure you all needed more fatherly Murdoc in your lives, no need to thank me. But you should, because it'd make me really fuckin happy. Quite honestly, I was silent-squealing during the whole writing process. Your kindness would most definitely not be lost on me, so be sure to leave a review! I always love to read them, it makes me grin like a bloody madman every time I get one.

Have a good week, okay?!

Until next time,

Liz


	8. Take It In Your Heart

[Phase 1]

Note: The italic lettering featured later on means that Noodle is speaking in Japanese, but is still in English because I don't want to torture my readers (and myself.)

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"Del!" Noodle calls from her bedroom. "Del see!"

It's Friday night, late as always. After Russ has gone to bed, she likes to call upon Del, the ghost rapper that possesses her father figure. Noodle's pretty sure that there's more than just Del in Russel's body, but she hasn't gotten to meet the other spirits, if they're present. She thinks that Del talks about them at times, but she's not completely sure.

Del likes to detach his spirit from Russel's body at night, and oftentimes goes to spend time with Noodle when she's still awake. 2D had gone to bed hours ago, but Noodle had taken a long nap earlier that day and isn't even remotely tired yet.

Moments later, Del finally arrives in the girl's room. "Heya, pretty girl. Wotcha up to?" The ghostly man asks. He somehow props himself on the surface of the door frame, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Colour." She replies with a wide smile in his direction. Sure enough, the child is surrounded by crayons, papers, pencils, and markers. However, she appears to be writing music on the back of one of her colouring pages instead of actually colouring on it.

Weirdo.

"Yeah? Wha'd ya want me to see?" Del asks, obviously very amused by her antics.

"Oh, hai, ock-a-pus." The Japanese girl replies, sitting up and shuffling the papers around in search of the particular one she had mentioned.

"Octopus, yeah? That's reeeal cool." Del comments, walking over to her. Well, not really walking, his feet don't touch the ground. He's always floating at least an inch above the floor, but still chooses to give the illusion of walking. Upon arrival, the bluish entity sits on the floor next to her.

Once she finds said octopus page, she hands it off to Del, who looks at the page. Impressed, he says, "Woah, yo just gettin' better an' better at this kinda shit, girl! I like it!"

"Gift Del." She tells him, nodding at the page meaningfully. "Um, uh, Noodle give Del ock-a-pus."

"Oh, man, I can't take this!" He seems to be blushing at her, somehow. It's an odd sight, considering he's a ghost.

"Uh. Um." Noodle shakes her head. " _It's just for you, so you have to take it, okay_?" She's reverted back to using her Japanese, having given up on English for now. Luckily for Del, he can understand it; being a ghost does have its perks.

"Are ya real sure, Nood?" Del asks her with a grin. He doesn't receive gifts often. Probably because he's dead. But that doesn't mean he isn't still appreciative of them.

" _Keep it. It's yours_."* The girl replies with an urgent look in her eyes

Del is now grinning like an idiot. "Woah, girl, thanks a ton!" He exclaims. "I'll be sure to have ol' Russ hang it up on the wall in 'is room." He tells her.

" _Very good. Your octopus deserves the very best place_." There's a nod of approval from her.

"Right, well, whatchu workin on over there?" Del sets his octopus colouring page on the dresser, careful not to crumple it.

" _It's a bit of music I came up with. Nothing special, really_." Noodle answers the ghost, humming a bit. She's lying on her stomach, her legs kicking through the air.

"Yeah? I'm sure it's great. Is it just chords? Or like real lyrics?" Del presses, leaning over to try and get a glimpse of her project.

" _Lyrics_." She says, gazing down at her paper.

"Sing. I wanna hear."

"Hmm, okay." Noodle sits up.

(Note: she's singing the Japanese part in their song 'Faust'. I'm too lazy to type in the actual lyrics.)

She does so, a bit of a blush finding its way to her cheeks when she finishes.

Del's silent for a moment. "Tha-that's real nice, Nood. Real pretty."

She finds it surprising that there's no sarcasm in his voice.

" _Thank you_!" The young girl says with another smile.

"Okay, so, you're showin' this to the boys, right?" Del looks at her proudly, he's dang sure Russel would feel the same. The girl has a great voice, and the ghost still can't believe that she's only sung for him. They're missing out, he thinks with a shake of his head.

"Hmm, no good." She's decided to go to back to English. Noodle's afraid that if she goes back to using Japanese for too long, she'll forget all of the English wording she's learned over the past few months.

"Well, I'm not gonna force ya, but I still think ya should. Russ would love to hear you sing, I bet you."

"No, Toochee sing. Noodle play gui-tar." The kid reminds Del with a pointed look.

"Right, but, ahh, whatever. Russ is wakin' up, so I got to go in a sec'." Del's started flickering and is definitely more translucent than he had been.

"Love Del much." She blows the ghost a kiss.

He blows one back. "Love you too, girl, stay outta trouble. Let Russ know I love him, too."

"Bye-bye!" The guitarist says, frowning. She doesn't want him to go. She never does like it when her friend leaves, but it's unavoidable.

Standing up, she takes Del's picture off of the dresser and starts off to Russel's room.

Knocking on the door, she taps her foot while she waits.

Moments later, the door opens. "Hey, baby-girl. You have fun with Del?" He asks.

She isn't sure how he always knows when she's been playing with Del, but nods. He bends down to pick her up and she covers his face with kisses. "Del, uh, Del say loves Russel." She tells him, which makes him chuckle.

"Yeah? Nice of him." Russ pecks her forehead. "What's this picture here?"

"Ock-a-pus. Del present from Noodle." The girl replies. "Put on, uh, um. Put on Russel room wall, Del ask."

"Tha's real cool, baby," Russel agrees, "o'course I'll put it up there." He glances at the wall across from his bed. It's whitewashed, covered in suspicious-looking red splatters. There's lots of other pictures on the wall, courtesy of Noodle. Most of them are colouring pictures, but others are drawings of things mainly consisting of Russel, cats, and guitars. Noodle loves cats; they're tied with octopi as being her most favorite animal.

"Where you want it?" Russel asks, looking around on the wall for an empty spot.

"Del wall." Noodle points to a wall that has a yellowing picture of Russ' old gang before the drive-by.

"Yeah? Aight, baby-girl." He takes some tape from one of the drawers in his dresser after setting Noodle on the bed. Her feet don't quite touch the ground, yet, despite a very recent growth spurt.

Russ loves to look at her drawings, especially when he's feeling useless. It reminds him that he's still needed here and it's not time to be with his old gang just yet. He's not planning to leave her with the other two dumbarses, though he knows that they mean well. He wants to be there for his kid, and dying won't accomplish that.

The fact that she likes to give Del gifts makes him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. He's sure that part of that feeling is contributed to Del himself. The rapper always did like to receive presents, and why should that change even though he's dead?

"Ah! Good. Very!" Noodle chirps happily, a bright smile on her face.

"I think so, too. This one's probably one of your best ones yet, baby-girl," Russel admires it, having stepped back.

Beside the coloured-in octopus is written in her messy handwriting, "4 Del." The 'e' is backwards, as is the four. She hadn't remembered how to write the correct English letters to spell 'for' with, but she had recently learned to write the numbers from one to eight, and she had remembered that the number and word are pronounced the same way when speaking in English. Russ had taped her page next to the cracked photograph on the wall.

"Um. Happy. Happy Del. Good." She approves, stifling a yawn. It's getting on to be 03:00, now. "Lift Noodle?"

"Yeah, it makes Del real happy." Russel agrees, not having missed her yawn. He picks her back up, cradling her. "You're such a good girl, you know?" He asks, a small smile tugging at his lips.

"Hai, good Noodle." She rests her hand on his cheek, burying her face in the baggy shirt he's wearing for pyjamas. His arms are her most favorite out of all of her boys' arms. They're so strong, she knows, and nothing can ever get past them and hurt her.

"Sleepy, yeah?" He rests his head on hers. Russel sits down on his rocking chair.

"A sleep. Mu-doc, Toochee. A sleep, also." She tells him, her voice muffled. Russel's the only one of her boys who doesn't smell strongly of cigarettes. He had given up the constant habit when Noodle arrived, only having a smoke on occasion, usually when his nerves are way out of whack.

"They asleep, yeah. You should be, too, baby." He doesn't seem too upset, though. She's often awake late, he knows, mainly so she can give Del some company. Del would often get lonely in when he was still alive, especially at night when any sane person would be asleep. Anyhow, Noodle's never been a morning person, even when she does go to sleep at a normal hour. It seems to run in the family; Murdoc and 2D aren't morning people, either, both usually staying awake very late into the night. They would then sleep in until at least 12:00. Noodle could definitely do the same if Russel didn't make sure she was awake by 09:30. Oversleeping isn't healthy.

"Russel a sleep?" Noodle looks up at him with curiosity.

"I was, yeah. Guessin' that Del woke me up somehow." Russ replies.

"Hmm, oh." Noodle pats Russel's cheek.

He nods. "D'ya want me to get Mike?" He wonders, referring to her stuffed monkey.

"Hai, Mike." Her voice is quiet.

Standing up, Russ bends down to set her on the bed. Her eyelids are drooping as she sits there. The late hour is finally catching up to her, obviously.

"I'll be right back, baby." He turns to exit the room.

"Nn." She agrees, rubbing her eye roughly with a balled-up fist.

As she sits there alone, she looks over to the photograph of Russel and the gang he talks about often. She knows that Russ misses them lots. Somehow, she feels as if she misses them, too, though she'd never met them. She wishes she could have met the guys. Maybe Russel would be truly happy if they were alive. She sees Del as almost like a second brother, one who's very different. Everyone is special in their way, and Del's not an exception. She wishes she could hug him, though. He often looks as if he could use one.

"Here, baby." Russ has returned with Mike.

"Arigato." Noodle thanks, taking the animal from Russ gratefully.

"Mhm. What's bugging ya, girl?" He picks her back up again, lounging on his bed with the girl in his arms.

"Noodle, uh. . . Noodle miss Del. Russel-like." She answers, her words slurring together.

"I know. It's not fair that he ain't here, too, but I can't fix it. No one can but the big man up there, and I think he's forgotten 'bout me." Russel says sadly.

"Nn.." She sighs, putting her arms around the large man as best she can in a hug. "Noodle love Russel."

"I know, baby. Love you back." Russ rests his hand on her back, closing his eyes.

The two fall to sleep like that. Del returns to his ghost form and sits there watching over the two until morning. That sight's something special to him.

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Hey!

Hoo, boy, this chapter was tough to write. Not only that, it ended up being waay longer than I had expected it to be. I was running out of steam around around the 750 words point, but then I had a boost in my motivation and wrote at least another 1000. I had just started out with, 'I should do something with Del.' Then this monster of a chapter was born. I was sure not to hold back with the fluff. Fluff is good. But there's a bit of bittersweet to it, obviously, because Del. I'll definitely write more with him; character development is nice.

Sleep well, Russ! You deserve it.

Until next time,

Liz


	9. The Worlds That Connect To Ours

[Phase 1]

Okay, it's 11:00. The band are on-route from the airport, which is certainly boring to Noodle and 2D. It's three hours to Kong Studios from the airport. They're all tired from the long flight from New York City; where they had been visiting Russel's family.

Currently, Noodle's stretched out in her seat, her head rested on Russel's arm. Stuart's in the front seat, as usual. He gets really nervous if he has to sit in back, oddly. That leaves Murdoc driving the car and Russ lounging with Noodle behind the other two.

The stereo system is on, the weather station. It's calling for severe storms, even a high tornado warning in their area. Everyone's strangely silent, even Noodle, who doesn't understand the distorted words coming from the car speakers. She seems to have picked up that there's a grim mood, and is quickly becoming transfixed with how the sky outside her window is looking. It's not the same dark sky she's used to seeing at Kong, it's interestingly different.

"R-Russel..?" She finally speaks, looking at him nervously. "Outside. . Green, look." Her tiny finger points to the window, confusion etched across her face.

"Shut the mouth, girly, we're trying to listen!" Murdoc speaks up before the drummer can answer his kid.

Russ takes Noodle into his arms protectively, glancing down at her for a moment. "Don't talk to her tha' way, Muds." His voice is threatening. In all honestly, he's worried about what's being predicted on the stereo system, though he's sure as hell not gonna show it.

"D'ya.. U-uh, think it's safe to go back, Murdoc?" 2D's very obviously scared, it not having occurred to him to try and hide it from Noodle's view so she doesn't become fearful. "B-back home? With this weather?

Before there's a reply from Murdoc, a flash of lightning lights up the sky, immediately followed by a deafening thunder clap; which shakes the whole car. Noodle shrieks, covering her ears. No one had been expecting something like that so soon, and she hadn't been the only one surprised. Murdoc had involuntarily stopped the car, having hit the brakes at the sight of the lightning. Luckily, they had been the only car going down that road for miles, so there isn't any collision. 2D is now even more of a stuttering mess, and not even Russ can translate what he's trying to say. The large man is holding Noodle tightly, she having buried her face in his chest for a moment. After the shock wears off, Noodle lifts her head from Russ' shirt.

"Loud!" She grins widely, patting the man's cheek affectionately before turning to gaze out the window again. "A big sound!" Noodle comments, not shaken at all. "No good, car shake much." She makes a 'tsking' sound and shakes her head; almost a reflection of Murdoc, who does precisely the same thing when given the reason to.

Russel laughs; a deep, roaring laugh. "Gee, Muds, she's actin' like you."

"Atta-girl." Murdoc's started the car again. He could've smiled, his lips crease a bit at the edges. He doesn't, though, too focused on the task at hand.

The station is getting too much static, so they can't really hear the news broadcaster anymore. Murdoc supposes it could be caused by the demon possessing the stereo system trying to fuck with him; or perhaps the ever-thickening cloud cover overhead.

"There's no overpass 'round here, is there." Stuart sighs. It's not a question, but a statement.

"Not seeing one, no." Murdoc answers. It's begun to rain, now, almost a downpour. He's got the feeling like time is running out before the storm really starts, and he'd better at least get them somewhere they can be protected from the growing winds. He'll be damned if he can't prevent Noodle from getting injured by this dangerous weather.

"A rain, see. Much of rain, yeah?" Noodle speaks up. "Hm, no good, make all wet." She sighs, setting the side of her face down on Russel as she stares outside. "Cold rain. Noodle not like." Noodle finishes with a yawn.

"Ya got that right, baby-girl." Russel agrees, grinning.

"Well, we'll 'ave to go out there. It's not safe to be in this hunk of metal when the weather's like this. It could very well tip over if the wind gets any stronger," Murdoc informs the other two adults. He puts the car in park next to an uninhabited petrol station; the closest thing to a safe shelter. They're in the twenty-mile stretch of bare land that leads to Kong Studios, but Murdoc knows that they aren't likely to arrive in one piece considering how dangerous the conditions are. Plus, he's not willing to risk their lives to try and finish the trip there. The winding road leading up to Kong is dangerous enough as it is without all this damned weather.

"Out? Hm, too wet. No like." Noodle shakes her head.

"No other option, dove." Murdoc says, zipping his coat. He pulls his hood over his head. "I'll go see if the thing's unlocked. You all can wait 'ere."

Before anyone can protest, he's out in the rain, walking over to the abandoned petrol station building.

"Uh oh, Mu-doc." Noodle comments. There's another jarringly loud thunderclap. "Where he go?" The rain's so thick now that they can't see through it clearly enough to keep an eye on Murdoc.

Russel frowns. "He's fine, but you're not going out there in nothin' but your tank top and shorts."

"No coat, Russel. None on." She points to herself.

"I can see tha'. Your coat's in the boot, ain't it?" He asks with a scratch of his head.

"Hai, boot in rain. No good, yeah?"

She's got a point; if Russel were to open up the boot of the car, it's likely that all of their things would be drenched in an instant. He's not in the mood to deal with Murdoc's incessant bitching about how El Diablo got wet.

"Alright, then." Russ pulls his jacket over his head, then placing it on Noodle. It's so big on her that her feet can't even be seen under the bottom hem of it. "That'll have to do."

Noodle looks down at the enormous jacket. "Noodle is a Russel. Good, good." She's got one of those cheeky grins on her face.

"Oh, Russ, how cute!" Stuart's turned around, having momentarily forgotten that he's nervous about Murdoc being out there. "It's like a big dress!"

"Toochee like Russel shirt?" Noodle asks, giggling.

"Yeah! It's cool!" He admires with a smile.

Russ chuckles, pecking the top of her head. "You're warm, now, yeah?" He asks.

"Hm, yes. Warm. Big shirt." She agrees.

"Good." Russel nods his approval.

Suddenly, the driver door opens to reveal a soaked Murdoc. "Come on, you lot, I've broken the lock!" He exclaims over the pouring rain. The wind is blowing his hair every which way, but he doesn't seem to notice.

"I don't want to go out there in the rain.." 2D mutters with a frown.

"You're coming out here right now! Let's go!" As if on cue, lightning strikes a tree only yards away from them, causing Noodle to squeal with excitement.

"Sky kill a tree!" Noodle exclaims after the thunder that follows. Stuart takes a deep breath before stepping out of the car and running towards the petrol station. He's not risking being in a metal box while it's storming like this. Russel sighs. It's now or never.

"Let's go, baby." He instructs, opening the door. Noodle nods.

"Pick up Noodle, Russel? Will fall, a big shirt." She gestures to the jacket.

"Aight." He takes her into his arms quickly, and she rests her forehead in the crook of his neck, bracing for the cold rain.

"Hurry up, we haven't all day!" Murdoc urges, locking the doors. It's way windier around here than Russ had thought it might be, and he tightens his hold on the child protectively. In the thirty seconds from the car to the station, everyone is positively soaked when they're finally inside. It's dark and falling apart on the inside and smells a lot like dead things, but Russ reckons it better than the car was. He sets Noodle down on the floor.

"Yuck! Smell no good!" Noodle exclaims. She notices that there's puddles forming on the floor where the roof is leaking. "Rain inside?"

"Huh?" 2D asks, looking at her. She points to the ceiling, where there's at least four places steadily dripping water. "Ohh.. Well, that's not good, is it?" He scratches his head and steps over to the holes to investigate further.

"No good, no." She agrees.

Murdoc's sitting in the darkest corner of the room, positively miserable at how wet he is. Noodle makes her way to him, tilting her head with confusion. "Sad Mu-doc?" She sits down on an overturned bucket next to him. The place is quite filthy, even by their standards. There appears to have been a sort of group playing around with guns in here at some point; the place is riddled with bullet holes and ammo casings.

"No, dove, ol' Murdy's just a tad tired, is all." The green man doesn't glance at her.

"Oh. Um." Noodle says helpfully. She pats his shoulder, looking around again. "Rain inside." She 'tsks' again.

"I heard, yeah. Not much I can do 'bout that, though."

The girl withdrawals her hand, roughly brushing her hair from her face. She'll be needing a trim, soon. "Thank for, um, uh.." She scratches her head. "Thanking for open dooring?" Noodle seems confused by her own words.

Murdoc seems to understand what she's trying to say. "Oh, of course, lovely. Not a problem." He replies absently. He seems to be in a Quiet Mood, so she decides to let him be.

Noodle hums, now looking around on the floor for something of interest. "Ooh! What this!" She murmurs to herself, standing up and walking over to a large bullet case. It's a large metal cylinder, obviously very old and rather rusted. She picks it up, eyeing it as carefully as she can in the low light. Lightning flashes outside, making her glance up for a moment.

"Baby, stay outta trouble, I don't need you gettin' hurt in this shithole." Russel directs. He's leaning on a wall, eyes fixed on her.

"Noodle okay, Russel no worry." She replies with a nod. "Noodle go see there?" Noodle points to an opened door in the back of the former storefront.

"Not on your own, no way in hell." Russel replies. "I'll go with ya. Anyone else coming?" The drummer glances at the other two men .

"Fine. It's awfully dull, here, anyhow." Murdoc agrees, standing up and making an effort of dusting the back of his trousers off, though to no avail.

"D-Don't leave me by myself!" Stuart exclaims. "This place is r-r-really creepy!!"

"Fuckin' hell, why are you such a baby? Think the bloody Boogie Man's gonna get you?" Murdoc looks a tad annoyed.

"N-No! Well. . . maybe!" Stu checks to make sure he's not in Murdoc's arm's reach.

"Why the fuck would he hang out 'round here, faceache?! He's better than that!" Murdoc replies, looking a bit befuddled at how daft Stuart is.

"No fight! Stop it now!" Noodle demands, crossing her arms and glaring at the pair. She'd tossed the old bullet case back onto the floor, having quickly lost interest in it.

They do; both appear to flinch under her furious gaze.

"Alright, let's go." Russel starts over to the opening. Noodle rushes to his side and slips her hand into his, then clutching to it tightly. He notices that she's feeling a bit cold despite the jacket, but doesn't say anything. The other two men follow behind. The walls are all coated in graffiti, enough to the point where the original paint color isn't discernable. There's shattered glass all over the floor in here, along with miscellaneous debris. Noodle lets go of Russel's hand, her eyes travelling around quickly. She walks ahead of the three.

Murdoc stops to laugh at a statement spray-painted on one of the filthy walls; "Freedy's gonna kill ya". The handwriting is god awful, he comments.

"Wonder who Freedy is.." Stuart mumbles. The other two shrug.

"Hey, where'd Noodle go?" Russel looks around quickly.

As if in response, there's a shriek from down the small corridor at the side of the building. The boys come running, Stuart tripping over his own legs a few times.

Murdoc's the first to arrive, eyes wild. He fixes his gaze on the girl, who appears fine. That is, until he realises that she's staring at something on the floor next to her with an absolutely horrified expression on her face.

He walks to her with a frown. "What is it, girly?" The Satanist asks, following her gaze.

There's a human body on the floor. Mostly bones. There's still some patches of skin and flesh clinging stubbornly to the yellowed bones, along with greasy hair clinging to the skull. The clothes are still on the body, too. "Oh, sweet Satan, what the fuck?!" Murdoc whispers.

Noodle's lip trembles. She knows what that is, and she's petrified. The girl has seen zombies before, but nothing like this. Russel and Stuart have arrived, too. Immediately upon seeing the corpse, Russ snatches Noodle up and away from the rancid thing. She's shaking violently, eyes squeezing shut.

"That explains the smell, yeah?" Somehow, Stuart isn't fazed by this sight. Probably something due to the fact that he's got that huge obsession with zombie movies.

"Shh, baby, I've got you. . ." Russel says, his hand rubbing her back. His eyes haven't left the body, but he's not planning on getting any closer. "You're okay, you're fine." He sounds like he's trying to reassure himself, too.

The girl sniffles. Wind howls outside, adding to the eerie feel of the room. "Well, that's something you don't see every day." Murdoc comments, scratching his head thoughtfully.

"Uh, we kind of do see this kinda thing every day. We live in the center of a graveyard." Stuart points out, fighting back the growing urge to poke at the thing with a stick.

Murdoc glares at Stuart, tempted to whack the idiot. His fists clench and unclench. He decides against it, again, but only because he doesn't want to upset his guitarist further. "Well, yeah, but those bodies. . . Aren't fully dead, see. Unless I'm mistaken; this one's *pretty* fuckin' dead." He mentions, eyes sliding back to the body.

"Probably so." Stuart shrugs, turning to Russel and Noodle. He frowns, taking the girl's hand and squeezing it gently. "Oh, don't be sad, luv, it's just a body."

"Dee, she's ten. Of course seeing shit like this is gonna upset her. 'Specially if she wasn't expecting it." Russ reminds him. "It'd upset anyone in their right mind."

"Oh, right." Is all Stuart says, squeezing her hand once again. She holds to him tightly, mumbling something.

"Sorry, luv?" The young man asks.

"No like dead. Dead a scary to Noodle." She repeats, having lifted her face slightly so she's understandable.

"Told ya." Russel eyes the body again warily. The head appears to have a bullet hole through the side; dried blood is caked around the entry wound.

"We, uh, we should probably leave it be, eh?" Murdoc says. It doesn't really seem like a question, though it's phrased like one.

"I ain't touchin' it." Russ grunts. "I don't need yet another soul in me."

"Hey, maybe this guy is Freedy?" Stuart says suddenly.

Murdoc finally whacks him upside the head.

Noodle murmurs something, tightening her hold on Russel and Stuart. "A bad. No like." She repeats herself again.

"I know, it's alright." Russ pecks the top of Noodle's head. "Did you touch it?"

"Accident. Noodle see shoe under a big wood. Move a wood off." She explains, her forehead moving to rest in the crook of his neck again.

"Ohh, must be why she screamed like that." 2D says.

"No shit?" Murdoc looks about ready to hit him again.

"A ouch." She adds, leaning back in Russel's arms to gaze at a long splinter impaled deeply in the palm of her hand. "A wood in Noodle hand." The child turns her hand to show Russ.

"Damn, that doesn't look good." The man sighs.

"I wanna see! Lemme see it!" Stuart demands. Noodle shows him and Murdoc. There's a low whistle from him. "That's gotta hurt a lot." The bluenette mutters. There's already dark bruising around the entry point, and it seems to be getting infected quickly.

She nods, turning to stare at the splinter herself. She tugs at it experimentally, hissing when pain shoots up her arm. She keeps pulling at it until the thing slides from the inside of her palm, biting her lip to keep from crying out.

The men all stare at her with mixed expressions: Murdoc looks impressed, Russel dumbfounded, and Stuart horrified.

"Uh oh, a bleed." Her eyes are a bit watery from the pain, but she doesn't complain about that.

"Well, naturally, yeah. That thing was bloody huge!" Murdoc bends down and picks up the dropped piece of wood from the ground.

Russ decides not to speak, only holding her tightly. He knows it'll definitely be infected if it isn't already; especially considering what that wood was on top of, but there's not much he can do about it in their situation. Taking the hand gently, he dabs at it with a fold of his shirt.

"Sorr-ee." Noodle says, gazing at Russel nervously.

"Don't be, baby-girl, you didn't know better. I'm not upset with you, just a bit worried." Informs the man.

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A few hours pass without any sign of the weather letting up. If anything, it's even worse. It's pushing on 16:00, Russel reckons. The four had moved back to the front room, none of them really wanting to stay in the same room as the body. Noodle's gotten back to her normal self despite her injuries, (both physical and mental ), and is rather bored. She and 2D had cleared some of the debris from the floor and had been playing tic-tac-toe until around ten minutes ago, when Noodle had won her fortieth game in a row. Stuart had given up the fight after that, throwing his arms up in defeat.

So now they're all just sitting around. Murdoc seems to have dozed off in the corner; there's slight snoring coming from him. He had been exceedingly angry to find that his fags had been too wet to smoke. Russ is keeping watch over the two youngest band members, his chin propped up on his hand.

Noodle's singing, "Is the money a star, is the money a star?" over and over under her breath as she paces back-and-fourth. 2D is biting at a loose bit of skin next to his fingernail, quite wishing he had remembered his own cigarettes. He'd left them in the car. He had even put them in a Ziploc baggie before they had gotten on their plane, so they wouldn't have been wet if he had brought them out in the rain.

"Home yet?" Noodle's stopped singing momentarily, gazing over at Russel curiously.

2D opens the door to glance outside. He's about to turn away when he notices a funnel of clouds over in the distance. "Holy shit." He mutters, closing the door quickly. "H-heh. Um. Russ." Stuart swallows a lump in his throat. His eyes have gone white with fear.

"What, dee?"

Stu jabs a thumb towards the door. "Might, u-uh, want to see." He says nervously.

The large man grunts, standing up and walking over to the door. Noodle follows suit, opening it a crack. Glancing out, her eyes widen at the sight of the tornado. "What that?" The child then squints to keep the pounding rain from her eyes.

Russ opens the door a bit wider so he can see out. "Motherfucker." He makes sure Noodle's fingers aren't in the crack created by opening the door before closing it again. "We gotta get out of here, it's headin' towards us." He tells.

"O-oh. Yeah, I thought so." Stuart agrees.

"Yo, Muds! Wake up." Russel calls. "We're leaving."

"Wha..? What? Why?" Murdoc mumbles, not fully conscious yet.

"Twister. It's comin' towards us, we gotta get outta here quick." His voice is urgent.

"Fuckin' hell." Suddenly, he's fully awake and ripping open the door to check. It's still a good few miles in the horizon, but he can tell that it's gaining way towards them quickly.

"Let's go, then, come on!" He yells over the pouring rain, heading to the car quickly. Stuart rushes after him, Noodle at his heels. Russ brings up the back, though he's not running. Somewhere between the petrol station and the car, Noodle trips and falls on the gravel, scraping up her chin. She immediately lifts herself back to her feet. Russel grabs her and rushes the rest of the way to the car.

Slamming the door after they get in, he exclaims, "Go, you shit!" Because he knows he's not able to safeguard his kid from an impending tornado no matter how hard he trIes.

The bassist grunts, pressing his foot hard on the gas.

Noodle presses her face up against Russel's window, transfixed with this funnel of destruction.

"Baby, your chin's bleedin'." Russ gently wipes a steady stream of blood from it, a worried expression on his face.

She finally turns away from the window to gaze at her reflection in the rear view mirror. "Uh oh, a bad ouch." There's a bloody gash and scuff marks around it from where she'd hit the ground. "It ow." She touches the scuff marks around the cut experimentally, hissing when it stings.

"Oh, Murdoc, isn't there bandages in here somewhere?" 2D asks.

"If there are, they'll probably be in the glove compartment." Murdoc replies. His mismatched gaze keeps flicking back and forth between the road and the tornado. The rain's thickening again, but at this point he has no other option but to drive if he wants them all alive.

Stuart opens the compartment to reveal the dusty box of bandages. Pulling the top part off, he realises that there's only one in there. It'll have to do. "Here, Russ."

The drummer takes the bandage, sticking a finger in his mouth; then wiping as much grime from the wound as he can. She lets him, doing her best not to flinch at the sting of raw skin. Once the bandage is on, she cuddles up in Russel's lap happily. He picks up the injured hand for another look. There's a red ring forming around the puncture, and he's sure it hurts like hell. Russel still can't believe she'd yanked that chunk of wood out the way she had; and without a single cry. He's not seen anything like that before, especially not from a ten-year-old girl.

"Ouch no good." Noodle says tiredly. "Hurt." She's comfortable, somehow managing to lay down in his lap. It'd been an easier feat before her recent growth spurt, but she still manages, even if her legs are hanging over the edge of his lap. One of his arms is supporting her upper half, and her head's rested on his right shoulder. Even with the growing, she's still so thin, and he hardly notices her weight whenever he's carrying her

"I know. We'll clean you up as soon as we're outta this mess, alright?" The man promises sympathetically. He sets her hand down gently, then pushing the hair out of her eyes.

"Nn." She replies, resting her uninjured hand on his other shoulder and shutting her eyes. "Noodle scared. The dead." Noodle admits, opening her eyes again. When she closes them, she can't see anything but that body.

The man frowns. "I'm sorry ya had to see it; 'specially now that you're hurt." He rests his chin on the crown of her head. "But I won't let anything else happen to you, okay? I've got you." His voice is gentle, now, and she feels a bit safer now that he's holding her.

"Love Russel. Russel a good." She whispers. Noodle closes her eyes again, now focussing her mind on the sound of his breathing.

There's silence around them now. Once, Murdoc stops at a red and turns his head to check on the two. They're being awfully quiet. His gaze softens at the sight, and he jabs his thumb towards them for 2D to look.

Stuart just about melts at the sight. His two best mates are dozing; Russ' lips are curved upwards in a slight smile. Noodle is snuggled warmly in his arms. The hand she isn't favouring is wrapped tightly in Russel's shirt.

"I'm glad they're resting, Russ was getting cranky." Stuart whispers.

Murdoc nods in agreement, his eyes now fixed back on the road ahead.

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Hello, all!

This whole story is well over double my normal length. I'm wondering, should I repost it as two chapters, or . . ?

The "Freedy's gonna kill ya" is a reference to something I found spraypainted in an abandoned barn when I was little. A couple months ago, I had gone back to that barn with my elder sister and her friend. Turns out, it had been burnt black, but the spray painted cinder blocks were still there, along with that saying and a half-burnt creepy doll. If you want some pictures, I can find a way to send them to you; so go ahead and ask if you're interested in seeing them.

Not much else to say, this time round. Hope you're having a good weekend!

Until next time,

Liz


	10. The Hate That Consumes Ya

[Phase 2]

It's 17:00. The band members are all lounging at the dinner table, having finished recording another track of their latest album, Demon Days. Russ had ordered Chinese food for an early dinner. Everyone but Murdoc had been complaining about how hungry they were; especially Stuart. Murdoc doesn't seem to eat much, instead just drinking beer and rum; along with the occasional glass of whiskey.

So now they're eating. Murdoc looks to be picking at the questionably-sourced meat on his plate. It's a strange yellowish-white on the inside, not exactly the colour of chicken, but not the colour of beef or turkey, either.

Noodle is chowing down on a huge pile of food, humming contentedly. She always acts like she's starving to death, (looks it, too), but she eats almost as much as Russel, and it never ceases to blow Murdoc's mind. He thinks it might have to do with how fast she's been growing recently.

"--So then I says, 'what am I supposed to do with a giant teddy? Eat it?'" Murdoc shakes his head with a frown. "Of course, I thanked the bird, but what does one do with something that bloody useless?"

"Dunno." Stuart replies, his mouth full.

Noodle shrugs. "It is almost bigger than my bed." The girl says between bites of rice. "And that is without all of my stuffed animals and comforters."

"D'you want it?" Murdoc offers. "I very well can't fit that in my Winnie, can I? What the fuck was the bird thinking?"

"Will it even fit in my own room?" Noodle wonders.

"Oh, yeah, you don't have a lot of space in there, do you, now?" The bassist asks, now nibbling at his food.

"Not a lot of space, no." Noodle agrees. The girl scratches the back of her neck before going back to eating.

"That's why she likes to sleep in the den, it's not as stuffy in there." Stuart speaks up.

"She sleeps in the den?" Russel cuts in finally, an eyebrow raised.

Noodle nods. "I thought that you had known." She sets her chopsticks down, her stomach full.

"Hm." Is Russel's reply. He goes back to eating, obviously speculating this.

"Looks like I might just go burn the thing. It's too much bloody trouble to deal with." Murdoc says. He's actually eaten a few full bites of food, miraculously.

"That is wasteful. Do not burn it, Murdoc!" Noodle protests, shaking her head.

"What's being wasted other than my space?" He retorts.

"The nice lady bought it for you, so her money. It is not fair to the fans!" She insists.

Murdoc considers this begrudgingly. He picks at his food a bit more, once nibbling at a few grains of rice. "S'pose I might just throw it away instead of burning?" He's aware how powerless against Noodle he is, and he had accepted that he can't say no to her within the first month of her arrival. It hasn't changed at all within the years she's been there, much to his annoyance.

"No, not good. That is still wasting. I will keep it in my room." Noodle says with a sigh.

"No, there won't be any space for you if the bear's in there, baby-girl." Russel counters. His voice is firm, and both Murdoc and Noodle know that he's not open for arguments.

Stuart sets his own chopsticks down. He had been having trouble holding them correctly and had zoned out from the conversation as he struggled with them. He seems rather frustrated, picking up a fork and shoveling food into his mouth. Russ had been watching him with amusement, unsurprised that 2D had been defeated by the thin wooden sticks.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do with it, then?!" Murdoc scowls, slamming his fist down on the table. No one has an answer, and he grunts.

"Maybe I can put it in my room. It's one of the bigger ones in the place, pretty sure." Stuart says, mouth stuffed to the point where he's spewing crumbs from it.

"Hm. Suppose." Murdoc replies. "Close your fucking mouth when you're chewing, paper-brain! Nobody needs to see that shite!" He complains, trying to reach over the table to smack the bluenette. Luckily, Stu is just far enough that Murdoc can't quite reach.

"No hitting!" Noodle yells angrily. "You promised!"

"But I didn't hit him, now, did I?" Murdoc retorts, sticking his overly-elongated tongue out at her.

The girl returns the gesture, sticking up a certain finger at him. There's a look of warning from Russel and she quickly withdrawals said finger, but the pissed-off expression remains on her face.

"Don't worry, luv. I'm all right." 2D reassures the child, smiling at her.

"That's very good, but Murdoc needs to control himself." Noodle grumbles, pushing herself from the table. She walks over to Russ and buries her face in his chest, as she usually does when she gets angry or upset but doesn't want the other two to see it. He sets down the takeout box he had been eating dumplings from and lets her climb to his lap.

He's so used to Murdoc injuring 2D that he usually forgets about how it affects Noodle. He'll separate the two from each other if it gets out of hand, but the rest of the violence is such a norm for them that he doesn't really notice it, unless it upsets his kid. Then he's ready to break Murdoc's nose again if she asks him to.

"Oh, come the fuck on, why would you get all upset about nothing?!" Murdoc demands, not ready to admit that there's guilt crawling around in the back of his head.

Noodle doesn't answer, sulking. She refuses to even acknowledge Murdoc's existence at this point.

Both Russel and Stuart are glaring at Murdoc angrily, though the Satanist pretends not to notice. Noodle's in one of the moods where it'll be a bit before she's back to her normal self, and all of them know it. There's heated silence for awhile, during which Murdoc and Russ are having a sort of silent shouting match.

'Apologise!' Russ mouths, his eyes blazing with anger.

'No! I did nothing wrong!' Murdoc retorts soundlessly.

"What?" 2D whispers. "I can't hear you two," his head's tilted, much like a confused pup tilts its head.

There's no response, although Murdoc would have much liked to punch him at that moment.

Russel shakes his head angrily, standing up with the child in his arms. "C'mon, baby, let's get you cleaned up, huh?" He says, his voice tight.

"I'll help." Stuart offers, standing up so suddenly he almost knocks the table over.

"Alright, then." Russel agrees, gesturing with his head to the hallway leading to the den.

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It's been a few hours since the argument, no one has really heard from Murdoc. However, he had dumped the ginormous teddy bear into the den, and both Noodle and 2D have managed to lie on it, somehow. They're tangled up in limbs of both the teddy and each other, watching some God awful zombie flick. Russ is reading a biography of some bloke who did something pertaining to football.

"You know, maybe these daft girls would survive if they did not keep separating from each other. Strength in numbers, yeah?" Noodle says, sighing. She's back to her normal self, but now she's dreading what might become of the human race if everyone were this stupid in real life. She knows that she and her boys would survive an apocalypse; hell, Murdoc would fit right in with the zombies, they probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between themselves and he. The other three, well, they've already proven themselves against zombies, considering they'd lived in a graveyard for years. However, she can't really vouch for the rest of humanity.

"Yeah, they aren't smart at all, are they?" Stuart replies, ruffling her hair.

"Not at all. Have they not seen any horror movies? Splitting up never works out well. They all end up getting sacked, save for the one couple who are smart enough to stay together." She goes on, returning the gesture.

"Oh, yeah. Well, they might be too scared to watch horror movies when, uh, they have the option." Stuart points out, his pitch black eyes falling back to the screen.

"Hm, pathetic. They have to prepare, but no. It is too scary. Except that pretty much every single horror flick is so farfetched, it is not even slightly believable. No matter how good the graphics are." She replies, shaking her head.

"Well, not everyone's as brave as you, little luv." The young man reminds her.

"Hmm, yeah." Noodle says. "But I am fifteen. They are at least twenty, each of them."

"They're not karate masters."

"That is not an excuse, I cannot kick a demon no matter how much I want to; my leg will go straight through it. Unless Murdoc counts as a demon, but . . . That is too easy." She looks a bit ticked off when she says the bassist's name, still obviously mad at him. "The bastard cannot even move out of the way when I kick him, he is so slow."

"What the fuck did you just say about me, girl?" Murdoc's voice sounds from the hallway.

"She called you slow!" Stuart speaks up before there's a chance for her to reply, unable to stop himself.

Murdoc stomps into the room angrily, stopping to loom over the youngest band members threateningly. Stuart wraps his lanky arms around the girl protectively, flinching.

"That is right. You are slow, and awful, and I hate you very much." Noodle doesn't look remotely afraid of him. Instead, her eyes harden as she gazes back at him, easily matching his burning glare.

"I'm sorry I nearly broke my promise." He says reluctantly, much to everyone's surprise. His soulfire eye is flickering, again, and his glare doesn't waver.

Noodle gently unwraps herself from Stuart's grasp, patting him on the head as she stands up. She stomps over to Murdoc angrily. "Never do it again." She mumbles, wrapping her arms round his lower half.

"I can't guarantee anything, you know that." Murdoc replies, returning the hug.

A sigh. "I still hate you," She reminds him.

"Hate you, too. Always have." The Satanist agrees, pecking the top of Noodle's head.

They embrace for a bit longer. When they let go, the pair realise that both Stu and Russ are staring at them, both looking touched by this exchange.

Murdoc blushes angrily. "What are you two dullards looking at?! Get a life!" He hollers, storming out of the room.

Noodle returns to her position atop the bear next to 2D, just barely smiling. "How'd you do that?!" Stuart asks, purely dumbfounded. "He never apologises, 'specially when he thinks he's done nothing wrong!"

"He is an idiot." She says simply.

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Hello again!

I didn't really get anywhere with this one. Then again, maybe there wasn't anywhere to go. This was basically just a short example of how complicated Noodle's relationship with Murdoc is. And by short, I mean upwards of 1,770 words. Still pretty short compared to my recent chapters, but not as short as my first few.

Special thanks to everyone who's reviewed, favorited, followed, etc. You all are awesome! It keeps me motivated to write, so keep it up, yeah?

I hope you've all had a great week, mates!

Been working on Lety's request. Expect the finished story in around three weeks!

Until next time,

Liz


	11. Get The Cool Shoeshine (Part 1)

[Phase 1]

It's been around half a month since Noodle had first arrived at Kong Studios. Murdoc and 2D still aren't used to her being there, and oftentimes she uses that to her advantage; mainly so she can hide behind corners and jump out at them. Stuart screams every time, but she's only done it to Murdoc twice due to him not usually hanging around in the actual 'studios' part of Kong Studios-- instead preferring to spend the majority of his time in his Winnebago down in the car park. Russel's gotten used to her company, willingly being her primary caretaker for all things any parent would do for her if she had one.

Speaking of, Russ has been scanning newspapers containing reports of missing children in Japan. No one's put out a search alert for Noodle, which he finds suspicious. It's also strange that she can't remember anything about herself other than her age. Even then, they don't even have a solid birth-date. Hell, how she even managed to FedEx herself from Osaka escapes him. She's only nine, for fuck's sake, and appears even younger than that, maybe six. She literally appears to have come from nowhere. Then again, he's probably too attached to her to contact someone about where she's come from. After all, it can't be safe to send her back if she had deemed her former situation too dangerous, right? Seriously, though, who could ever be cruel to her? She's the textbook definition of joyful.

"Rus-ol!" Noodle exclaims, jerking Russel from his train of thought. The pattering of her tiny feet can be heard echoing along the corridor. She barrels into the room, a blur of red and blue. The force of her impacting Russel's chest nearly sends him flying backwards out of his chair.

After quickly regaining balance, Russel shakes his head. "Jeez, baby-girl. You're gonna end up breakin' your neck." He says, helping her get situated.

"Huh?" She asks, confused. Noodle then begins ranting in Japanese, doing over-exaggerated hand motions. He picks up a word relating to clothing, he thinks, but that's not much to go on.

"Slow it down a little, baby! I can't understand a word you're saying!" Russ reminds her, putting a finger on his lips.

"Oh, hai. Uh." Noodle begins constructing English words in her head, reciting a string of seemingly random ones under her breath. "Shoe." She points down to her foot.

"Yeah?" Russel says, a tad confused.

She mimes a motion of breaking a stick or something of the like.

"Stick?" Russel guesses, now even more confused.

"Um. No." She repeats the motion.

"Twig?" He asks. He'd never been good at charades as a kid.

A sigh of hopelessness is her answer. "Stay." She slides off of his lap.

"Okay, then. . ?" Russel shrugs, returning to his newspaper.

Hardly a minute passes before she's barreling into him again.

"You really need to stop doin' that, you're gonna get hurt." The drummer urges once he's recovered.

Noodle shakes her head again, shoving her sneaker in his face. It has the tread peeling off, revealing a large hole where her toe would definitely be exposed.

"Oh, broke. Your shoe is broken," he says with a sigh.

"Hai. Shoe, uh, um. Shoe dead. Ah. Bye-bye, shoe." She agrees, shoving her finger through the hole. He notices that she hasn't changed from pyjamas, yet, even though it's now getting on to be eleven o'clock. Russ supposes that this new development had probably distracted her from it; and from the looks, she had tried to fix it with a rubber band.

"Well, looks like we'll have to get you more shoes, huh? Probably more clothes, too." He decides with a chuckle.

"Oh! Noodle, uh, Noodle get shirt. Yeah?" She looks excited.

"Mhm. I'll have the others get up, we'll all go." Russ says. Then again, it's not as if they could've gone without Murdoc, considering he's the only one out of them that can legally drive in the UK. Plus, Stuart doesn't like being alone in Kong, he always insists that it scares him.

"Toochee!" Noodle grins widely.

"Yeah. Now, let's go get some clothes on, yeah?" He stands, offering to set her back down. She shakes her head, clinging to him tightly. The girl always seems to want to be held, despite her age. Russ doesn't mind at all, thinking she may have had a lack of physical contact before she'd arrived. Again, he's wondering what could her life have been like before she met the three men? He knows she has nightmares often; though she can never say what they're about. He knows because she wakes up crying sometimes, and it breaks his heart every time it happens.

Clearing his mind, the man knocks on Stuart's door. "Dee, get up, we're going to the store."

There's no reply.

"Toochee! Noodle get shirt! Up!" The child adds impatiently, banging on the door as hard as she can.

Finally, there's a groan. "Mum, there's no school, it's a weekend, let me alone," Stuart's voice sounds. Moments later, there's more soft snoring.

"Right, I'm coming in, then." Russ tells Noodle. She giggles, nodding with approval.

He turns the knob, then stepping into 2D's room. Walking to the bed, he then drops Noodle onto the singer, causing her to squeal with delight.

"Wha--" Stuart is immediately cut off by the child covering his face in kisses.

"H-erro!" Noodle chirps, scooting to rest herself on his stomach.

"Oh, hello, luv! Blimey, I thought you two were me mum trying to wake me for school!"

"You've done stupider things, trust me. Anyway, we're going to the store to get baby some new shoes and clothing." Russel explains.

"Oh, alright. That's better than school, yeah?" Stuart replies, pulling Noodle closer to himself. Her head's rested directly over his ribcage, now, and she happily listens to the sound of his heartbeat.

"Probably, yeah. Now, start waking up, we'll be leaving after I make us some breakfast and she's dressed. I gotta get Muds up, too." He looks at Noodle with amusement. He read somewhere that a heartbeat is one of the most calming sounds to a child, especially to one with no mother. She's living proof of that statement, definitely.

"Alright. I need the toilets, so here." The lanky man pries the girl off, much to her annoyance, handing her to Russel.

"Hmph." Noodle complains, resting her chin on Russel's shoulder.

They ignore her for the time being. "See you in a bit, then." Russ starts towards the door.

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They've woken the two, now. Murdoc had been less-than-willing to get up, and Russ is sure that the Satanist had broken the record for the most swear words spoken in one minute. He'd even been tempted to cover Noodle's ears, it was so bad. Luckily for her, she can't understand most words in the English language.

Right now, he's got Noodle sitting at the dinner table drinking chocolate milk. She's mostly ready to go, just needs her hair combed. Someone will have to carry her while they're out, considering the state of her shoes, just until she's purchased new ones.

Russ is getting breakfast ready, humming silently. "Rus-ol, a food?" Noodle requests impatiently.

"Yeah, yeah, almost ready." The man replies, chucking. "Hungry, aren't ya?"

"Hai, a food. Noodle eat."

"Right, thought as much." He turns from his cooking to search one of the cabinets for the plates.

"What a food Rus-ol do?" Noodle inquires. The child's eyes are wide, her hands tapping on the table inaudibly.

"Just eggs and sausages. Nothin' big." Russ replies, now scooping portions of the food into a plate.

"Oh! Mmm." Noodle grins widely.

"Alright, baby-girl, here ya go." Russel sets the plate down in front of her.

"Thank! Um. Thank a Rus-ol!" She says happily.

He laughs. "No problem. I'll be right back, gotta make sure that Dee and Muds are both getting cleaned up before I eat."

She nods as if she had understood, shoving a forkful of egg into her mouth. "Mmm!"

Russel kisses the top of her head before heading towards the corridor. He's grinning, though he doesn't notice it. The man's not used to getting compliments on his cooking. There's the occasional one from Stu, yeah, but Noodle always looks like she's taken a bite of the most delicious meal whenever she eats his food. Kinda motivates him to improve.

"Oh, hey, Russ!" A cockney voice pulls him from his thoughts.

"Hi, there. I was just gonna go make sure you didn't go back to sleep." Russel hums a bit. "Breakfast is, uh, in the kitchen, baby's already in there." He says.

"Ooh! Thank you," the bluenette grins; the gaps where his front teeth should be are showing. "I am quite hungry, yeah!" 2D starts towards the kitchen eagerly. "See you in a bit, then!"

"Yep. Don't eat too much, you'll get sick." Russel reminds the young man.

"I won't!" Stuart waves him off.

Changing course for Murdoc's Winnie, he sighs, finally frowning. It's hard to stay fully happy for Russel, but he doesn't ever really have the time to feel fully depressed anymore since Noodle had arrived. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he trudges to the lift. Pressing the 'parking lot' button, he sits down on the floor. It'll be a good three minutes for it to arrive to its destination, given how damned slow the thing moves. The elevator begins to move, also starting to play the quiet background music. Murdoc had changed it to an instrumental of 'Stairway to Heaven' by Led Zeppelin for a bit of a laugh. The idiot recently read somewhere about the supposed satanic message that is given when the song is played backwards and had thought that it was the cleverest thing. Russel, on the other hand, had heard the song play backwards and had thought the theory was farfetched and ridiculous. However, the reversed instrumentals had creeped out 2D in the first thirty seconds and he didn't even get to the actual 'singing' part, so they didn't get much of an opinion from him.

But, enough of that.

Russel's mind is blank throughout the ride, he just feels like shit. Eventually, the lift dings and the doors slide open. He stands up and then steps out into the car park. Another sigh escapes him before he goes to bang on Murdoc's door.

"Yo, Muds, you woke? We're leavin' as soon as breakfast's over." His voice is gruff. He doesn't like Murdoc much.

"I'm getting my fuckin shoes on! Stop rushing me, damn you!" Murdoc's not in the best mood, obviously.

"Great. Hurry it up, then!" With a final rap on his door, Russel turns around and heads back towards the lift.

His way back up isn't much different from his descent. It's quiet, at least it would be if it weren't for that godforsaken Zeppelin song. Russ had never been crazy about it, no, even before Murdoc discovered the whole reversal theory. He's got half the mind to change the song when they're back. Literally anything might be better than this.

The ding sounds, and Russel exits, scratching his neck. It's got that annoying soreness that comes with sleeping weirdly, as it usually does. He's almost used to it, by now, but it's still painful. Turning into the kitchen, he lifts his head to investigate the pair occupying it.

"-- so then I was standing on the roof of my school with my four mates. It was beautiful! It's kinda sad that they tore down that school. I guess all of the rats was an issue. I think there might have been a rumour that someone inside was murdered-- oh, hey, Russel! I was just telling Noods a story." Stuart explains with a smile in the man's direction

"That's real nice, Dee." Russel stretches his arms as he heads to the stove to get a plate of food for himself.

"Rus-ol!" Noodle exclaims, leaping from her chair and going to hug his legs.

"Hey, baby-girl. Missed me?" Russel chuckles, bending down to ruffle her hair affectionately.

"Good Rus-ol!" She nods. "Um. Uh. Mu-doc?"

"He's on his way up; he was gettin' his shoes on, he said." The man explains.

"So, 'nother half an hour, then?" Stuart asks.

"Probably so." Russel answers with a nod. He tells Noodle to go finish eating her breakfast before standing up straight and beginning to serve himself.

The girl starts back over to her food with a hum. She takes her seat and begins her last few bites of food. "Mu-doc a bad, no like Noodle a shirt."

"I'm sure he has nothing against you getting new clothes, luv. He just doesn't like early mornings. Or late mornings.. Or early noon.. Or late noon.. Or early afternoo--"

"Dee, shut up." Interrupts Russel. "Just eat your damn food, we don't have all day. Look, you haven't even touched it; you've been talking so much."

"Oh, oops. I should fix that, yeah?" Stu finally picks up his fork, gazing down at his food. He's debating what to eat first. Takes a lot of brainpower to decide whether to eat eggs or sausage first, after all.

"Oh, um. Uh." Noodle's finished. "Noodle, uh, get a red shoe?" She inquires, now grabbing her chocolate milk and drinking a bit more of that.

"Red shoes? Sure, baby-girl, some red ones." Russel nods, now heading back towards the table.

"Ah! Good, good. Thank!" She does a thumbs-up. "A food lost." Noodle points to her empty plate and then to her stomach. "Bye-bye a food!"

"Good job, Noods! That was fast!" Stuart congratulates. His mouth's full.

"More?" Russel offers, amused. The man takes a bite of his own food.

She shakes her head no, instead going over to climb up onto her father figure's lap. "A Rus-ol."

"Mhm." He settles her on his lap gently. She sighs with contentment and rests her head down on him as he eats.

"You know," Stuart says, setting down his fork. "It's stormy today, do we have any umbrellas?"

"Think so; dunno where they are, though." Russel says between bites of egg.

"Maybe we'll miss the rain."

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Hello, all!!

That concludes part 1 of this chapter. I know that not much happens here in this part, but it was fun to write when I had the focus.

I just got back from Myrtle Beach. ( the trip was from 05/15/17--05/18/17, not counting travelling time.) I ended up listening to Plastic Beach while on the beach, it was really fulfilling! Especially when I was on the beach before sunrise today, (05:15, it was so early for me), the whole album just made me enjoy the experience all the more! Especially the songs 'On Melancholy Hill' and 'Some Kind Of Nature'. They really made it so that I had a great time. Thanks again, Damon Albarn! Oh, and Ticker Tape played on my phone last night and I nearly cried, it is so good. I can't believe I'd not listened to it sooner.

I bought a hermit crab. Named it Faust (after Murdoc's middle name.) I love him a lot, I hope he doesn't die.

You guys are gonna be reading this three weeks after I wrote it; I like to stay ahead in my writings. ;)

Until next time,

Liz


	12. Get The Cool Shoeshine (Part 2)

[Phase 1]  
(Continued from last week's chapter.)

The group are finally in the car. Stuart's found a 'Rubik's Cube' and is busily working away at lining up all the pieces in the correct color sides. Noodle had figured it out quickly and finished it in five minutes, while Stu's completely lost. He doesn't seem frustrated, though; he's too focused on his task.

"You know, we should go to the beach at some point soon, yeah? It'd be fuckin great. Besides, I don't think that Noodle has been there before." Murdoc is in a good mood despite the less-than-preferable early awakening. So now he's rambling about whatever comes into his mind. Russel's finding it a bit annoying.

"Sure." The drummer says absentmindedly, his eyes fixed on the scenery they're passing. Noodle had climbed back into his lap as soon as they'd gotten in the car, and now she's playing 'Pokémon' on her Gameboy and humming along with the music playing in her headphones. The girl's barefoot, having loudly refused to wear nothing but socks. So Russ had pocketed the damned things, not seeing a reason to argue with a nine-year-old.

"Besides, there's always something to do there. I'm rather, well, bored with staying at Kong for the time being. Hell, I'm sure everyone is, yeah?" Murdoc continues.

"Pretty sure it's just you. 'Sides, it might have something to do with the fact that you spend all your damned time in that gross ass camper." Russ points out, rubbing Noodle's back as he gazes outside.

"I'd quite like to go to the beach, Russel. I really like the shells there. Haven't been there since I was a little tyke. I've almost forgotten what it looks like." Stuart turns his head to gaze at Russel.

"We'll see, then." The large man shrugs.

Noodle's taken her headphones out. "Um. Uh, Rus-ol. At, uh, shop soon? Noodle shirt. Um. Shoe."

"Couple more minutes, baby-girl." Russel replies. His gaze falls to the girl on his lap.

"Game. Um. Dead. No good." Noodle explains. She waves the game console around in Russel's face; its screen has gone black, a symbol of the battery being empty.

"Guess so, huh?" Russ sighs. "Looks like we'll have to charge it up when we get back home."

"Huh?" Noodle inquires.

"Fix game at Kong Studios." The man says slowly.

"Oh, hai. Uh, good, good." She agrees with a cheeky grin.

They wait in mostly-silence. The only thing keeping it from being fully silent is the rumble of the engine and the low volume of the stereo.

"Alright. We're here." Murdoc puts the car in park and opens the door. The other three follow suit.

"I'll carry Noodle. She can't walk around the stores barefoot, can she? That might not be good." Stuart offers. Russ nods and hands his kid to the lanky man, then stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"You drop her and I'll be real pissed," Russel threatens, his eyebrows lowering to create a rather malevolent facial expression.

"R-Right." Stuart gulps, shifting her to rest on his shoulders. He's not taking chances. Good thing she doesn't weigh much, right?

Noodle giggles. "Noodle a big! Big Toochee!" She chirps, patting him on the head.

"That you are! It's nice, yeah?" The bluenette agrees, walking towards the mall entrance.

"You look like a bloody skyscraper!" Murdoc comments. He's got a weird top hat on, Stuart realises with a confused look.

"I'm no skyscraper! Skyscrapers don't have toes!" 2D protests.

"How d'ya think they stand up, huh? Invisible toes." Murdoc's definitely getting a kick out of this.

"What? Okay, that makes a little sense... But what about arms? And a nose?! What do they eat?" Stuart's getting flustered.

"Arms, nose.. All invisible. They eat people, obviously! All those idiots walking in through the doors? They're all really just walking into the mouth of the beast!" The Satanist is fighting back laughter.

Stuart considers this in silence. He doesn't quite know what to think about this new revelation.

"Right, that's enough, Murdoc. Don't want to make him too confused." Russel finally speaks up, though there's a thin air of amusement surrounding him.

"Oh, come on, lards! The dumbarse is actually buying it! Don't ruin it for me, this is fuckin hilarious!" Murdoc protests angrily.

"A big room!" Noodle's eyes are wide with awe. She doesn't much care what they're arguing about, it doesn't seem violent.

"Yeah! Oh, you've never been to a shopping mall before, have you, luv?" Stuart looks upwards at Noodle. "I guess it is pretty big." Agrees the singer.

"Um. A shirt?" Noodle asks. "Uh, um. Where?"

"Lots of places. With your size, I bet we could still fit you in toddler clothes. Wouldn't that be a laugh?" Murdoc jokes.

"Shut your damned mouth, Muds, before I tape it that way." Russ has gotten annoyed with Murdoc's mood. "Anyway, baby, we'll need to get you shoes, first. That way you can walk by yourself without hurtin' yo feet."

He's answered again by a very confused look from Noodle. "Oh, right. Um. Get shoe." The drummer clarifies.

"Hai. Good, good." The child does a thumbs-up, then blowing a kiss to Russel. Del recently taught her that. She had been getting frustrated with not being able to give her favorite ghost any physical affection. Noodle loves to give hugs to her boys, and she doesn't like that Del is left without any hugs. Not fair. Plus, Del often looks lonely, far too lonely. It's a lot like how Russ often looks, especially in the mornings.

Russ chuckles at her antics before pointing to a store specialising in shoes. "That store right there, dee." He commands.

"Lards, I'm gonna go off and fuck around. I'll be back in a bit." Murdoc says.

"Meet in the food court in an hour or so, aight?" Russel suggests.

"Hmm, sure." Murdoc agrees. "I'm off, then."

"Mu-doc go? Bye-bye Mu-doc!" Noodle waves.

"Huh? Oh, I'll see you soon, dove." He reaches up and pats her hand. She blows him a kiss, too. Murdoc shakes his head with a slight smile and goes his way.

"Y'know, he's oddly happy. Wonder why." Stuart points out. He's walking through the shoe store doorway, pulling Noodle from his shoulders so she won't hit her head on the ceiling.

"Probably lookin' for a girl to take home." Russ guesses, menacingly eyeing the people who've turned their heads to stare at the three. He isn't taking any chances with his kid and paparazzi. They didn't drive here to be stared down by people who can't respect their privacy, after all.

"Shoe!" Noodle points at a large pair of boots. "Big, big!" She looks at Russ excitedly.

"Those ain't gonna fit you at all, baby-girl, but you right. Big shoes." Russel nods in approval.

They head to the kids shoe isle, specifically little girls. The majority of them are pink and sparkly, though there's those new shoes that light up when you stomp. They're the newest fad with kids; they're seen a lot around here. Stuart doesn't understand the use of those things, but he finds them cool. Too bad he's not a young lad anymore; otherwise he'd wear them all the time.

"Wow! Ah. Much a shoe."

Stuart sets her down on the floor gently. "Yeah! It's like a shoe house or something!"

Russel's looking round at the prices. They're really expensive, he notices. At the same time, he's glad the band's made a shit ton of money. He remembers back when he was a kid; his parents wouldn't have been able to afford these shoes. Hell, the cheapest ones are forty quid! That's enough money to buy a week's worth of food. He's glad Noodle doesn't have to deal with not having enough money.

"Red shoe!" Noodle exclaims, waving at Russel rapidly. She's located some red rain boots with ladybug spots on them.

"Oh, those are nice, Noods!" Stuart compliments.

"You want these ones, baby?" Russel asks.

"Hm, hai. Red shoe. Good, good." The girl grins.

"Gotta try 'em on. You need to get another couple pairs, though, rain boots will give blisters if you wear them long enough." Advises Russel.

"Ohh." Noodle obviously doesn't understand what he'd said, but she slips the rubber boots on quickly. Russel feels around the toe to check if it fits.

"Good enough. Two more pairs, then, girl," he eyes the price tag. Fifty quid. Sighing, Russ puts the shoes back in the box and hands it to Stuart. "Hold this." He instructs.

"Okay!" Stuart agrees.

"Rus-ol get a shoe?" Noodle asks, walking over and gesturing that she wants to be picked up. Russel obliges.

"Don't need any. I've got another pair at home. 'Sides, it's not like I've outgrown my shoes, ya know?" Russel pushes bangs from her eyes, then kissing her forehead. "Don't worry bout me, aight?"

"Nn." She replies. "No like. Umm. Noodle no like oth-ur shoe." Noodle informs him. "Is. Um, is.. No good? Uh, very no."

"That's fine, we can find a different shop." Russel tells, chucking again.

"Hai. Red shoe?" Noodle looks at Stu and makes grabbing motions with her hands.

"Gotta buy 'em first, baby." The large man reminds her. He shifts her so she's rested on his hip as they start walking to the register.

"Oh! Buy? Uh, what a buy?"

Russel doesn't answer, instead preoccupied with the sight of the growing amount of people coming in the store to catch a glimpse of the trio. "Fuckin' hell." Russel grunts, holding her tighter. He won't give the crowds any real acknowledgement as long as they keep a distance. The drummer hopes that they won't approach since Murdoc's not there to encourage them. However, Noodle's noticed the crowd, too. Instead of being wary, she pastes a celebrity smile on her face and waves, humming a bit.

When it's their turn in the cue for the register, Russel tells the rather confused worker to hurry on with it. Stuart places the shoebox on the countertop, consistently glancing back and forth between the crowds and the register. "Maybe we should say hello to them?" He suggests.

"No, we don't want them getting any ideas." Russel sighs. "I guess it's too late to stop the word from passing to the actual paparazzi that we're here."

"Big person! Many!" Noodle says helpfully, soaking in the attention.

"Mhm." Russel replies, handing the shop worker his debit card. He'd definitely prefer it if there weren't so many people taking their picture.

"Alright, let's get her shoes on and head out of here for the next shop," he says, taking his card and the shoes from the person. "Toss the box for me, will ya? He requests as he walks out of the store to locate a bench. All the people are admittedly making him nervous. He doesn't like that. He's got a gut feeling that something's gonna go wrong. Then again, he has that feeling often. On the other hand, Russel senses that Del's got the same feeling. That doesn't usually happen.

Finally locating a vacant bench, he sets Noodle down on it and pulls her socks from his pockets. "Alright, put these on, yeah?" Russel asks. She does a thumbs-up again and starts pulling them onto her bare feet, still humming. He's identified the song she's humming as the bassline for 'Starshine', her current favorite track in the new album. She's got a real good voice, they just need to teach her to harmonise. Russel thinks he remembers Murdoc mentioning that he's gonna see about getting Miho Hatori to teach her.

"Oh-kay!" Noodle exclaims, looking up at Russ expectantly.

"Done? Alright, put these on, then." Russel says.

She does so quickly, then leaping from the bench to her feet. The guitarist stomps a foot experimentally, giggling when the rubber squeaks on the tile.

"Ooh! Those are nice shoes, luv! They're perfect!" Stu says, admiring the bright red boots.

"A red shoe!" She agrees happily. "Get Noodle shirt?"

"Let's find another shoe store, first. Getting clothes will take longer." Russel replies, letting her take his hand. She grabs ahold of Stuart's hand with her other one.

"Oh-kay!" Noodle squeezes her father figure's hand tightly, grinning up at him. The trio have all blocked out the sounds of the crowd for the time being, instead focused on getting to a better store. A cheaper one; Russ secretly hopes, even though they've got enough money to start their own country. Well, not that much, but definitely close. Old habits stick with ya, after all. He supposes it's better to spend the money on things Noodle needs than gallons and gallons worth of alcoholic beverages.

"You know, maybe Murdoc's getting more stupid hats? I think he might be wearing that one so he appears taller." Stuart suggests suddenly.

"Could be, but I dunno why he'd be so excited over getting hats." Russel points to a different shoe store; one with a neon orange sign.

"Oh, right." He frowns, going back to his thoughts.

"Hm, um..N-no good." Noodle lets go of Stuart's hand for a moment to point at a photographer who's standing at the front of the shop they're trying to enter. The person's a very short, greasy looking guy; a bit creepy in appearance. Not creepy in the way that Murdoc is, she likes the way Murdoc looks. This man is causing alarm bells to ring in her head. "U-up, Rus-ol. No like a store." She pulls on his shirt urgently. The usually-shining dark brown eyes peeking out from behind her bangs are filled with fear.

Russel snatches her up quickly. He doesn't like the looks of the man, either. Immediately, Noodle buries her face in the crook of his neck. "It's okay, baby. I ain't gonna let him get any closer. C'mon, dee, let's go to a different shop."

Stuart nods rapidly. "Yeah, good idea."

"Watashi wa kare ò koroshitaidesu!" Noodle exclaims, peeking a bit over Russel's shoulder to glance at the photography. "Yaki korosu!" She adds before burying her face back under Russel's head.

(Translation- 'I want to kill him!'; the other one is something along the lines of 'I want to kill by burning', or 'kill it with fire!' It doesn't perfectly translate into English. Fuckin morbid kid. We all love her anyway.)

"What'd she say?" Stu asks.

"She wants to.. Um. Think she said 'him' at some point, but she was speakin' too fast for me to be able to translate the rest." Russel replies.

Noodle clutches Russel's shirt in her hands tightly. She thinks that the photographer's following them along with the rest of the crowd, and really doesn't like it. Noodle's gone pale with fear.

"Oh, Russ, Noodle doesn't look too good." Stuart looks down at the girl nervously.

Russel follows suit, a grimace on his face. He knows that this guy can't be safe if she's acting this way. "Noodle.." He says, worried.

She whimpers, wrapping her arms round his chest as best she can. Russel holds her firmly, making shushing noises. "You're just fine, baby, don't be scared. I'm gonna fuck that greasy pile of shit up if he don't lay off."

"B-Bad, uh, um, ugh.." Noodle doesn't know how to put the correct words together to make an understandable sentence.

"How about we go find her that new shirt she wanted, Russ?" Stuart asks. His first instinct is to distract her from the situation.

"Guess so." Russel agrees.

"A, um. N-Noodle shirt?" Noodle looks up at him.

He nods down at her. "Yeah, baby. Whatever you want."

"O-oh-kay." Noodle holds tight to him, still sniffling. Her hand reaches out so she can clasp into Stuart's hand again. "Uhh..Want Mu-doc also." The girl requests.

"We'll get him in a bit, baby-girl. He's just fine by himself." Russel sighs, wondering yet again what the bassist could be up to. He has the suspicion that Noodle won't feel better at all until she sees all of her boys safe. He thinks it might have to do with her nightmares.

"Yeah, Murdoc's fine! He's the toughest ever!" Stuart puts in.

"You all yakking about me, eh?" Murdoc's voice sounds from beside the three, startling all of them.

"Jeez, Muds. Don't fuckin do that!" Russel complains.

"Oh. Ello, Murdoc! We were just talking about you!" 2D grins.

"I heard, faceache. Anyhow, this mall is a disappointment." Murdoc goes on, obviously not caring about the enormous crowd behind them. "Say, what's the matter with Noodle? She not feeling well?"

"There's a hella creepy pap over behind us somewhere. She's scared outta her mind of him, and I don't blame her." Russel explains.

Murdoc turns his head to finally take a look at the crowd. "I don't see jack shit."

"He's probably hidin'. He was real short." The drummer says.

Noodle finally lifts her head to see Murdoc, her eyelids red from roughly rubbing at them. "Mu-doc.." She mumbles.

Russel hands her down to the bassist gently, his expression dark. He's never really seen Noodle this upset, and he doesn't believe that a normal photographer would have this effect on her. Whatever this dude's intentions might be, he's sure they ain't right.

"Now, now, dove, why so upset? You can kick the living daylights out of me, do so on a regular basis; so why should this bastard be any different?" Murdoc asks.

Noodle shakes her head, burying her face in his shirt. She likes the way he smells, it's comforting.

"Wow, this arsehole must be something." He says, looking a bit befuddled. At the same time, Murdoc is a bit pissed off. No one's allowed to upset his little Noodle, he won't allow them. Again, he turns to look for the man who'd upset her. "Don't see the fellow." He says again.

"Dunno, I think he's off hiding somewhere." Stuart says.

"We're just headed to get Noods some new clothes. We were gonna go in the shop over there to get her some more shoes to go with those boots, and that's when she saw him in the doorway. We saw him too." Russel explains to Murdoc.

"Well, that's not any good, is it? Oh, but her boots, let me see." He sets Noodle down. "Show me your new shoes, girly," Murdoc requests.

Noodle looks at him silently for a moment before turning her gaze to her feet. "Oh, a red shoe, Mu-doc. Good." She taps one of her feet, then sliding it a bit to show him the fun squeaking noise they make.

"Oh, I quite like that! They're very nice." Murdoc admires, and he means it.

"A good, yeah?" Noodle giggles, letting him pick her back up. "Russel got no a shoe."

"He probably doesn't need them, dove. No one's really growing anymore, save for you. Unless the dullard is still growing. He's like a weed, the way he's grown." Murdoc replies. He's craving a fag, again, but decides that he can wait until they're back towards the car. If the creepy bloke does come back, he'll definitely want to see why there was such a big fuss about him.

"I'm not a weed!" Stuart protests.

"Oh, shut it." Murdoc commands with a glare.

"No fight." Noodle says, her head rested on Murdoc's shoulder. The child rests her hand on his cheek as she so often does.

Murdoc rolls his eyes, but doesn't say no.

"How about this shop?" Russel points to a generic-looking store.

"Hai." Noodle replies, looking at the drummer. "A Noodle shirt."

"Good plan." Stuart says.

Murdoc starts over, rubbing her back absently. It's just an instinctual thing, but it definitely seems to do the trick. She's looking much calmer, now. Russel is pretty sure that it's also due to the fact that she has all her boys present. That's important to her.

Noodle's closed her eyes. She hasn't been carried by Murdoc for a few days, and she'd missed it. "Mu-doc a good."

"Of course I am. I'm me. Now, do you want to get down? It's time to sort through all of this rubbish, maybe we'll find something suitable for you." Murdoc asks.

"Hm, no down. A Mu-doc." She replies, tightening her hold.

Murdoc sighs. "You'd think she's three, the way she's actin'." He complains. He doesn't put her down, though.

"I don't really think she had, um. People she could hug. You know, before she got to us." Stuart suggests shyly.

"Probably not," Russel agrees with a nod. "She had all those bruises on her arms when she got here, and if that don't tell you nothin'.."

(He's referring to the bruising caused by injections. Though, he doesn't know they were caused by injections, he just knows it wasn't anything good that caused the bruising, if you catch my meaning. But with the whole Super Soldier thing, I'm certain that she's just been experimented on non-stop throughout her life.)

"Right, well. Whatever." Murdoc says. He glances down at her arms momentarily. She's definitely scarred, that's for sure. Again, a bit of anger flares up within him. He's more than familiar with the feeling of wounds caused by someone else, and he wouldn't have wished that on anybody. Especially not on her.

"Mu-doc?" Noodle asks, confused. "Uh, a.. A sad?" The hand rested on his cheek hasn't moved.

"Hm, no. No, not really." The bassist replies, shifting through racks of clothing with his free hand. He's not really looking, it's mostly rubbish, as he'd figured it would be.

"Noodle, um. Noodle red shirt?" She'd been considering what clothes she would want to get.

"Ya really like red, don't you, baby-girl?" Russel chuckles from beside them.

"Hai, a good." Noodle answers, now playing in Murdoc's hair. She's extra careful not to pull it, though.

"All these shorts are too short. What, do they expect me to let my kid wear something that small? She's nine! Fuckin cracker asses." Russel complains.

"I have to agree, that's a bit too provocative." Murdoc agrees begrudgingly. "Just imagine when she wants to bring some bloke home in a few years, won't that be just a blast? Can't wait to scare the shit outta him!"

"She ain't allowed to date until she's married." Russel replies, only half joking.

"Don't say that, she's still so little! You'll make her grow up too fast, and then she'll be adult by next year and we'll be old guys!" Stu urges nervously.

"Noodle a big. No small!" Noodle protests.

"Sure, lovely. Certainly you're the biggest man in the room." Murdoc jokes.

Russel laughs at this, ruffling Noodle's hair. "Hows about this one, girl?" He pulls out a bright red overcoat from one of the racks.

"Ooh! A red shirt!" Noodle grabs at it.

Murdoc finally sets her down, grinning. Afterwards, he turns to look at the crowds again. How they're going to get out of the mall, he doesn't quite know. They're bloody enormous!

His gaze fixes on a particular man fitting the description that the others had given him. The man's familiar to him, and he now knows why she'd been so afraid. "Huh, that bloke's ugly as all hell can be!" He mutters to Russel. He's trying to avoid alerting Noodle to his presence. "Now, why is he so familiar?" He glances down again at Noodle, who is doing a fashion model walk around wearing the coat Russel had suggested. "Ohh. That's ol' Jimmy Manson, that's who he is."

"You know him?" Russel looks suspicious to no end.

"Um. Well. Yeah, sort of. He's an old, well. Can't say pal, but.. He'd been a prospective guitarist when we'd sacked Paula. Haven't seen him in months." Murdoc explains.

"Looks like he's got an accomplice." Russel grunts. "How convenient."

Before Murdoc can see who Russel's referring to, he feels a tug on the hem of his jacket. "Rus-ol, Mu-doc, a good shirt?" Noodle interrupts. She's looking back to her normal self; positively radiating joy.

Murdoc looks at her with amusement. "It's very nice, dove. Suits you well." He tells her.

Russel smiles at his daughter. "Very pretty, baby-girl. You could be a model or some shit, you know?" The large man says, doing a thumbs up at her.

Noodle giggles, blushing. "Ah! Good, good!" Stuart's holding her hand as they start the search for more prospective clothing items.

"They've gone again." Russel comments quietly. He's being extra careful not to let the other two hear him.

"Oh, bugger." Swearing under his breath, Murdoc makes his way over to Noodle and Stuart. "You two found anything else?"

"No, she thinks that they're all, uh, really stupid. The other clothes, I mean." Stu explains.

"Well, this is the clothing for six year olds. She's nine." Russ points out.

"It's sad that she's not big enough for clothes that are meant for people her age. Not fair." 2D looks sympathetic.

"Hm, a, uh. What this." Noodle gestures to a navy blue tank with the number '23' on it. She doesn't remember what numbers look like in English lettering.

"She doesn't fuckin know what numbers are?!" Murdoc looks incredulous.

"She ain't even been here a month. I haven't had time to teach her the numbers, yet." Russel glares at Murdoc.

"No! No fight!" Noodle protests. She's getting a bit annoyed with this.

Murdoc rolls his eyes again. "They're numbers, Noodle. Two and three, it makes twenty-three."

"It's, I think, ni and, uh, san." Russel says. "Two and three. In Japanese."

Noodle nods, understanding. " Ooh! Hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu, yottsu!" She grins.

(Russ is speaking Sino-Japanese, while Noodle is speaking Native Japanese. Native Japanese, when being used for counting, is usually only used up to ten.)

"Right, numbers." Russel pats her head.

"Nu-bur." She repeats.

"Number." Russel says again, slower this time.

"Nuh-bur."

"Good enough, eh, Russ? Smart girl." Murdoc approves.

"Up?" Noodle asks Russel. She's looking a bit befuddled.

"Sure, baby. You want that shirt?" Russel asks as he lifts her.

"Hmm, hai." She replies. "Ni san!"

"See? Twenty-three. She ain't stupid." Russel picks up the tank top.

"Never said she was." Murdoc says.

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After another twenty minutes of searching, Noodle's found three more things for herself, and now they're headed to the fitting room for her to try them on for size. She's currently rambling on about something in broken English. Enough of the words are in Japanese that they aren't completely able to understand her.

"Alright, baby, go on in there and try these things on. If you need help, let me know, alright?" Russel sets her on the tile.

"Nn." She nods her head, then going into the 'women's fitting rooms' side of the enclosure with her outfits.

The other three stand in front of the entryway to the rooms, all feeling rather awkward. "Never thought I'd be doing this," Russel comments.

"Same here. I kinda feel like we're all her real family, waiting out here, but we're not related by anything but legal papers. Y'know." Stuart considers.

Moments pass without any words. A few minutes later, there's an enraged screech from Noodle's direction, followed by a loud crash. Russel swears, rushing through the entryway. He's immediately followed by Murdoc and Stuart.

The sight they're greeted with consists of Noodle with a bloodied lip pinning a full-grown man to the floor, a gun pointed at the man's head. She's got a scowl on her face, her eyebrows scrunched together. There's a broken camera laying next to the two.

Before Russel has time to react, Murdoc's already rushing over and kicking the bastard in the nose.

Stuart goes over and picks her up, then backing away from the creep. "Noodle. Are you alright, luv?!" He demands, searching her face for any other injury he might've missed. Sure enough, there's a nasty black eye forming on the left side of her face along with the split lip.

"Yaki korosu! Kutobare!" Noodle yells down at the intruder.

(Kill it with fire; fuck you)

Russel is beyond furious, joining Murdoc in beating up the guy who had the balls to spy on his baby girl. "You bitch ass motherfucker! How fucking dare you go near her?! She's nine! Piece of shit!" He yells.

"Get off! Off of me! You're mad!" The man isn't Jimmy Manson, but instead the accomplice Russel had seen earlier.

"Oh, you think I'll let you off easy because you beg? How about we take a look see at that camera, eh? Every picture of her I see," Murdoc's absolutely seething, "I BREAK one of your fucking fingers!"

Noodle looks as if she's in a lot of pain, but at the same time she's trying to break free from Stuart's arms to rejoin the beating up of the man. "Let. Go!" She demands angrily.

"No! You're hurt! Not letting you get any closer!" Stuart replies, voice surprisingly steady.

Noodle whimpers once before touching her lip. "Ow.. No good.." She looks at Stuart for a moment before hugging him. "Want a Rus-ol.." She sniffs, voice brittle.

"You can tell your boss that we ain't gonna stand for you taking those disgusting pictures of her, and I'll be taking the camera. Keep the fuck away from her, or I ain't gonna be so merciful next time, you catch my drift?" Russel's still positively radiating anger.

"Well said, Lards. Although, it's a bit sad I ran out of fingers to break." Murdoc complains, aiming a swift kick into the man's crotch. "That's for hurting her."

"Russ, Noodle wants you." Stuart tells the drummer.

Russel steps over, taking Noodle from 2D gently. "It's alright now, baby, he's not gonna be back. We were sure to leave a lasting impression." He says, picking up the clothes she had tried on.

Noodle is fighting back tears now that the adrenaline has worn off. "H-home.." She requests, her arms as tight around Russel as they'll get.

"Yeah, that's the plan, baby-girl." Russel shoves the clothing into Stuart's arms so he can hold Noodle tighter. "Let's go home."

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Hey everyone! This chapter was way too long, so I'm gonna keep the note short. Next up, Lety's story request! Thanks for that!

Murdoc's hat is a reference. Let me know if you get it!

Until next time,

Liz


	13. It's The Music That You Choose

Noodle stares at the rainstorm through the window of her bedroom. The sound of thunder makes her very nervous, now that she's gotten her memories back. She had been taught that the sound of explosions is cause for one's guard to be up, and apparently thunder wasn't an exception, much to her dismay. Really, it shouldn't bug her. It never had before, so why now?

Another clap of thunder shakes the foundation of Kong. Noodle shrieks, covering her ears and curling up on the floor. Eyes squeezed shut, she keeps her ears plugged as tightly as she can. It's unfair that she's now fifteen and has to be afraid of storms, really unfair. Pathetic, too. So of course she's not going to go crying to her boys, she isn't ten anymore.

Though, at this point, she wishes she was ten again. It was much easier, then. Another rumble sounds, and she tries to curl into herself further, though it doesn't really work. This is just ridiculous. Forcing herself to unfurl her limbs from each other, Noodle slowly sits up. She does so as quietly as she can manage; just to be safe.

Once she's made the progress, however, the loudest boom of thunder yet makes her go right back into the position she'd been in before. The girl stays like that for what seems like an hour, but the thunder won't let up. It seems to be getting worse, really. The sound of rain outside is so loud, she can't even hear herself think!

So, she doesn't hear the knocking on her door; nor the footsteps approaching her. She's still got her ears plugged, after all.

So when she suddenly feels arms going around her to pick her up, Noodle panics. Yelling, she flips out of the grasp and does a fighting pose once she's on the floor again, eyes blazing.

"Noodle, luv, it's only me," Stuart's voice is raised over the sound of the rain pounding against the studio.

Noodle, before she can react how she wants to, is startled again by another loud rumble of thunder. Shrieking, she slouches down, shaking.

"Oh, dear," Stu mumbles, again going to and picking her up. This time, however, she appears to melt into his arms, completely terror-struck. The bluenette immediately begins going to Russel. He has no clue what to do in this situation other than hold her and ask Russ what else to do.

Noodle doesn't make any sounds, completely embarrassed by herself. Not only that, she doesn't think she could move if she tried to, she's just too afraid.

"Noodle, luv, I've got you, okay? Don't be afraid." Stuart tries, pecking her head. He doesn't like that she's afraid, especially over nothing but a storm.

Opening Russel's door, Stuart finds him reading a book while snacking on some crisps. "What you want?" Russ demands after seeing who it was. However, he now notices the state of the girl in Stuart's arms. "What happened?" Russel asks, immediately standing up and reaching for Noodle.

Stu pauses, thinking this over. "Well-well," he stammers, "I was just checking on her, since I hadn't- hadn't seen her for awhile down in the studio." He sighs shakily. "She was lying on the floor, all balled up like she was very unhappy. Um. Scared."

"Did she say anything?" Russel presses, cradling the tiny girl in his arms.

"Hmm, no, don't think so. But-- but she screamed when it thundered. Very loud." He explains, gazing down at Noodle nervousty. "I didn't know much.. Much else to do about it but find you." Stu rubs the back of his neck, a little embarrassed.

Russ is silent for a moment. "You got any headphones?" He asks the singer, glancing at him.

"In my room, yeah. Why?" Stuart seems very confused by this.

The drummer rolls his eyes. "Just get them. You'll see why in a moment."

Nodding, Stuart rushes out of the room as quickly as he can. It's not very fast; by no means is he a runner, but the thought counts. He decides that he'll grab a fag, too, since he's been wanting one for a bit.

"Noodle." Russel says, eyes fixed on her face. "Are you okay? Don't seem very well."

Noodle's brow furrows slightly. "Uh. The thunder is.. Is no good. It is making me afraid."

Russel nods at this. "Thought so.. Just hold on a moment, see, I've just sent Dee for some headphones."

The teen sighs. "I. I was hoping that no one would find me.. It is not like I am ten anymore; I should not be afraid of something as petty as a thunderstorm."

"Baby-girl, it don't matter that you're afraid of a storm. You shoulda come and found one of us, we woulda made it better. Being alone when you're afraid of something makes it worse. You don't gotta deal with that by yourself, it ain't right." Russ lectures, though his voice is gentle.

"Still.. I should not be dependant on--"

"Shush. None of that. You can't think that you ain't allowed to ask for help from us; you know that. We're family, it's why we're still around after all the shit that's happened." The large man points out, pecking her forehead. "You're still my baby, I don't care if you're fifteen or twenty-three."

Noodle smiles despite the looming fear. "Okay, I will try to remember." She promises.

Russ returns the smile as Stuart arrives back in the room with his headphones in hand. He's got an unlit cigarette in his mouth. "Here are the headphones, um. Do you have a lighter in here? I can't find mine. It keeps disappearing like it has its own two legs! I bet it's decided to go to shop or something."

Noodle laughs at his antics. "What would your lighter be doing at the store, Toochee? Buying its own fags?" She asks.

"Dunno, I've always thought it was a rebel. You know. Sometimes, it won't even light when I want it to. Which is silly, it's the one job for a lighter to have!" Stuart hands the headphones over to Russel.

"Did it take your money with it?" Noodle wonders, sitting up in Russel's arms.

"Hmm, that's the thing. I lost my wallet a few days ago, so it might have. I don't think it can use my cards; I can hardly use them. I can never remember the pin number, I always have to ask Murdoc if he can remember it. Then again, the lighter is already smarter than me."

Noodle giggles. "Well, it looks like we will have to get you a new lighter, yeah?"

As Stuart nods, thunder sounds again. Noodle covers her ears, squeezing her eyes shut. "Well, I guess it's time for those headphones, hmm? Yo, Dee. Hand me the transistor radio on the dresser, will ya?" Russel requests.

"Oh-oh, yeah." Stuart responds.

Noodle whimpers, her face burrowing into Russel's nightshirt. She's started shaking again.

Russel sighs, petting her hair. "Alright, baby. Here we go, let's get these on you." He gently unwraps the girl's limbs from himself just enough so he can ease the headphones over her ears. Stuart hands the transistor to Russel, who takes it and plugs the headphones into the jack. Visibly relaxing, Noodle opens her eyes to look at whatever this sound is coming from.

"Ooh!" She exclaims, picking the radio up from Russel's hand. Immediately, she begins playing with the dial, her tongue sticking out as she concentrates.

"Well, that worked well!" Stuart exclaims. He seems relieved. "I wonder why it scares her so much. The thunder. It didn't use to, remember the tornado? There was lots of thunder then."

"Maybe her memories. Something before us, ya know?" Russel suggests, smiling slightly when Noodle lays back into his chest. "Either way, she's just fine now."

Stu grins. "Yeah! Much better."

Noodle's hand gestures for Stu to bend down. He does so without a second thought. She pecks his cheek, smiling widely. "Good Toochee. Thank you for helping me!"

He involuntarily blushes. "Of course! Anything for you, luv!"

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Hello, all! I'm crazy busy, but I'm doing my best to keep you all updated!

Can someone draw a comic series of Stu Pot and the Runaway Lighter? I'd about die if you did. But not really, because I still need to update. Can't do that if I'm dead, yeah?

More reviews and story ideas are very much requested. I'm running low on ideas!

Until next time,

Liz


	14. Haunted Till It Sleeps

(This chapter is dedicated to Lety! Thanks for the ideas! Much love! Sorry for the late update, I accidentally posted the other chapter meant for this week-- last week. Oops.)

\--unless otherwise specified, all dialogue is spoken in Japanese but written in English to save time. I'm not even gonna bother with italics.--

[Between Phases 1-2]

It's been nine months since the band's big argument. Noodle doesn't know where her family is, but at the same time isn't too worried about their well-being. She's somehow managed to fake her age so she could 'legally' travel alone, and Noodle had decided that she'd head back to Osaka to try and find out who she is and why she'd been shipped away from there. Of course, she'd arrived in Osaka around four months ago, but the only thing she's found is that the night terrors have somehow increased their hold on her mind.

She's frustrated, to say the least, but at the same time is glad to be able to use Japanese without any confused looks. On the other hand, she feels betrayed by her boys. Why'd they leave? Russel had left without even saying goodbye, and had even been the first to go. Just up and left. Well, he'd remembered to leave her fifty-thousand pounds. So it's not like she's living on the streets, but..It's unfair. Having money isn't the same as having her family around. Nothing can replace them. A lot of the time, she's so miserable she doesn't want to get up in the morning. She doesn't cry about it any more, but that's only because she doesn't feel she has tears remaining. Besides, crying isn't productive.

But, enough of that.

Noodle's had a project going on now for awhile. Whenever she feels as if she isn't getting anywhere with her search for an explanation of her past; she's been working on a few tracks for a potential album when Gorillaz reunites. She knows that they will, Stuart had promised that to her before he'd left. Yeah, he may be forgetful, but he's never once broken a promise to her. Noodle knows that even if they'd broken her trust with abandoning her, she can still hold Stuart to his promises.

Noodle likes how she blends in with the people in Japan. It's convenient; no one's recognised her like they had in the UK. She thinks it helps that she'd dyed her hair indigo. Somehow, it makes her appear much older than three-days-until-fourteen. At least in Japan.

Noodle looks down at her watch; the thing reads 23:00. She hadn't felt the need to eat anything at all, today, but now her stomach's rumbling. Sighing, Noodle sits up on her tatami and starts to put her laptop and wallet into her messenger bag. There's papers, some crumpled, strewn all over her floor. She'd fallen asleep with her head on the table. Noodle remembers looking at the clock last night before passing out from sheer exhaustion; it had read 08:32. She always finds she's got the best ideas when it comes to music late at night or in the morning hours. That's when she'd written most of the recently composed music. She's on track nine; maybe there's two or three more left to write. The only thing missing then will be the actual music.

She's found that the late nights also have to do with not feeling safe. The dreams have gotten so bad that she hasn't let herself sleep for longer than an hour at a time since she'd arrived.

Pulling on her boots, Noodle then gets up and stretches out. Going over to the bathroom, she turns the faucet over the sink on and waits for the water to warm up. Her hair is getting annoyingly long. She had been thinking of growing it out, but it's just plain tedious to deal with now that it's a few inches past her collarbone. She decides to cut it later on; it's not worth the trouble.

Rinsing her face with the warm water, Noodle then yanks a brush through the hair for a second, decides it's too much trouble, and just leaves it the spiky mess it is. She likes it better that way, anyhow, it reminds her of 2D.

Screw appearances, it's not likely she'll know any of the people she sees.

Pulling her bag onto her shoulder, she grabs the apartment key and stuffs it into her pocket. As she goes to open the door, she turns to look at the photo of her family. It's rested on a dusty ottoman over by the balcony. The teen turns away again, shaking her head. She's tempted to turn the frame so she can't see it, but she's also afraid she'll forget their faces. Noodle wonders how Del is for what seems like the millionth time; she's been missing him, too.

Shaking her head, she flips the light switch downwards and closes the door behind herself, then locking it with the key. As she walks down the corridor, she feels numb, as if she's missing memories. Of course, Noodle knows she is, but it makes her feel like she's missed out on an entire lifetime.

She pushes the down button on the lift. Her foot taps impatiently; she's hungry, damn it!

Finally, the aluminum doors slide open. She's on the seventh floor of an apartment complex smack in the center of Osaka. The price been steep, so she's been budgeting as much money as she can. She doesn't know how long she'll be in Japan; plus she doesn't want to risk her identity being discovered if she applies for a job. It hadn't been during customs and such, nor when she'd started renting her apartment, but there's always a first time.

Noodle walks along the sidewalk towards the shopping district, humming a bit as she does. It's rather dull taking in the increasingly familiar sights of the city when you're by yourself, as she'd found out when she'd first arrived. More often than not, she finds herself wishing to have physical contact with someone. She'd taken it for granted after awhile, but now she's completely alone. Definitely doesn't like it, either. She's not looking forward to celebrating her birthday by herself. Hell, she probably won't even celebrate. After all, what's celebration if you can't share the happiness with Stuart, Russel, or Murdoc?

She turns a corner, shifting her bag strap to a more comfortable position. Walking past the window shops is a bore, nothing's open. The one restaurant open is a ramen joint, one she's found at least tolerable. The night is clear, luckily, though all the neon-lit advertising signs gives the street a bit of an eerie feel to it. Noodle's glad when she finally arrives inside.

A tired-looking waiter looks up from his book, straightening out the slouch that had formed when he'd been reading it. He bows to her. "Hello, miss. Welcome to Golden Dove Ramen House. Please, follow me."

She returns the bow habitually, muttering a nervous 'thank you.' She follows him, and is directed to a booth seat with a bland painting of a sunrise hanging on the wall over it. The man asks Noodle for her order after handing a menu to her.

She orders the cheapest thing on the menu. Despite being hungry, she doesn't really have an appetite. Noodle never does, these days; just doesn't feel like eating.

When the waiter, (apparently his name is Ryusaki), has taken the order and shuffles off to let the kitchen staff know, she glances around the dining area. It's mostly empty in here, save for a young couple sitting at a small table together snogging, and a scruffy middle-aged man sitting in the booth in front of her. She notices that he's looking at her inquisitively. Noodle doesn't feel threatened, however. She instead finds him familiar, somehow. Not like being reminded of someone, but as if she actually knows the person.

No matter, it's probably just imagination. Shaking her head, the girl pulls her notebook from her bag. It's got an octopus on the cover. Octopi have been her favorite animal since was little, that much hasn't changed. Murdoc had even gotten an octopus tattoo just to surprise her. Noodle had been very excited about it. Even now, whenever she sees the tattoo, a little flutter of happiness makes itself known. Stuart had given her this notebook. It's still her favorite, though it's almost filled up with writings.

"Here you go, miss." The waiter has reappeared with a bowl on a platter with chopsticks beside it. "Are you alone? Where are your mother and father?" He asks, looking unable to stop himself.

"Oh, I'm twenty. Don't worry about me," she lies.

"Oh! Apologies!" Ryusaki bows again. "Just call if you need anything."

"Thank you." She replies, nodding.

Ryusaki walks over to the next booth, the one with the strange man sitting.

"Can I help you with anything else, sir?" He asks.

"Hmm, yes, in your menu, do you have..err.. ocean bacon?" The scruffy man inquires with a side glance in her area.

Suddenly, Noodle drops her chopsticks, eyes widening. Her mind's suddenly going a mile a minute, unfamiliar thoughts and pictures invading. Time seems to slow down as they make their way into her subconscious, though a mere five seconds pass. The girl doesn't pick them back up, instead standing up on the booth seat and pointing at the man. "It is you!" She exclaims loudly before she can stifle the act. Noodle looks around awkwardly to see that there are all eyes on her and sits down again with a forced laugh. "Heh, uh, sorry."

Ryusaki turns back to the man. "Very sorry, but I do not believe we have that. I have never even heard of it," he says, bowing yet again.

"Oh, don't bother yourself about it, it's not a common thing."

"..Right, well, I'll leave you to it. Sorry again." Ryusaki heads back to the front of the restaurant awkwardly.

The man slides into the seat in front of Noodle. "Ah, I wasn't completely sure it was you," he says.

"You! Uh, I have not seen you in years, Doctor Kyuzo." Noodle's incredulous. Nevermind these memories, now the man who made her is sitting in front of her, casually eating the ramen she had just ordered.

"Hope you weren't hungry." He grunts. His voice is rather wheezy. "Nevermind that. It's about time my favorite experiment paid me a visit, yes. Good to see you, um.. You've a name, I presume..?"

"Noodle."

"Right. Why'd you pick that name? Utterly awful, especially for such a fine specimen. Shame." He's already finished eating the ramen.

"It is a long story. Not one I much want to tell." Noodle forces bangs from her eyes.

"Why is that, then? It'd better be long, I didn't put all that work into you for it to be ineffective when it comes to naming things, you know." The scientist says.

"Okay, I will tell you on one condition." Noodle rests her chin on her hand.

"Oh, lovely. What's it, then?" He inquires, pushing his thick glasses higher onto the bridge of his nose.

"What happened, to.. Um, me? Or.. Everyone else I remember? The other ones?" Noodle has an air of urgency surrounding her. Even with these memories returned, she doesn't know much.

"Well, uh, Noodle. Long story short, you and twenty-nine others were grown by me and another few doctors to create the ultimate human, an indestructible soldier for use in wars and such." The man seems lighthearted.

"Unfortunately, through no fault of my own, nine years into the experiment, it was scrapped. The government had decided that you children were dangerously unstable; too powerful for your own good."

Noodle's eyes are closed. "So, they are dead. All of them."

"Mm. We were forced to gas them."

She sighs shakily. "What about me, then? Why am I still alive?"

The scientist is silent for a moment. "Um, how to put this.. I didn't have the heart to kill you. You were always the most joyful little thing I'd ever seen, even as a a tiny baby. With all the experiments, all the pain I put you through. You never resented me like the rest. Instead, you just smiled through it all. It's a bit selfish, yes, given what I've done to you, but I. Um. Couldn't kill you. Never kill you. You were," he pauses, "you are unique. I wanted to keep you that way."

"Oh." Is all she can say. She turns her head to gaze at the floor.

"So, when we were first, uh, ordered to euthanise the lot of you, I knew I couldn't. Not you. So I staged an escape, broke you out, and FedEx-ed you to some bloke who'd put an ad out for a guitarist for some lousy band of his. Gorilla, was it? No matter. You see, we'd given everyone a special talent. Yours, well, yours happened to be music." He finishes.

"The Gorillaz." She corrects. Thousands of questions are running through her head. "So.. I am not fully human, then? Cool."

He laughs. "You are, just different. I suppose the name 'Noodle' does suit you; I very well can't imagine you as anyone else. Though, you're smaller than I would've expected. What are you now, ten?"

"I will be fourteen in three days. Anyway, it was an accident, that name. Sort of. When I arrived in Kong Studios, I did not remember a lick of English! Well, I remembered one word; noodle. I do not recall it as well as the others do, but apparently I just repeated it over and over again. So, Toochee decided that it was my name."

"Toochee? Speaking of strange names.."

"That is a nickname. His real name is Stuart." Her face falls.

"Uh oh, what's this? Sadness?" He rubs the stubble on his chin.

Noodle then explains the argument between the three boys, Russel's abrupt exit, and her current situation.

"Well, that's not right for them to leave you alone. I say you find this father of yours and beat him senseless, but that's just me." The scientist advises.

"He is at least three times bigger than you are. Plus, I would never. Russel has protected me a lot. Plus, he left me with all that money. I do not think he thought I would be left alone by Murdoc and Toochee."

She admits. "It is not as if I hate him. None of them, really. They are all family."

"I see you haven't changed a bit, now. Anyway, I'd like to leave you with a word of advice. Go find them. You seem down even now; it's not right for any experiment of mine to feel like they're useless, hm?"

Noodle glares at him playfully. "Not as if I have any other plans now that I have found you."

"Yes, well. Here's my business card. If you ever need anything at all, give me a call, alright, Noodle?" The man slides from the booth and does a mock-salute before heading out.

Noodle stares down at the table. She feels as if she should chase after him; maybe kick him in the shins for eating her food. Sighing, she waves for Ryusaki, knowing she won't be able to walk home with her stomach as empty as it is.

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It's been three months since Noodle had gotten her memories back. Really, not much has changed. At the same time, though, everything feels to be different. Noodle knows what the faded scars on her arms and stomach are from, now, but in all honesty, it's just made her hate them more to know why she has them.

The nightmares? Those turned out to be broken memories of a former reality, and they're still not gone. She doesn't mean to fear them, no, but she can't help when she wakes up with tears in her eyes and phantom pains shooting up through her arms.

But, on the bright side, she's able to speak nearly-perfect English. She had noticed when she had first spoken in it last week that she somehow has a mix of a Japanese and a British accent when she does speak. Not that she minds, but it makes her miss her boys even more to sound like them when she speaks. Although, she's always loved the sound of Stuart's, and even Murdoc's voices. She misses Russel's most of all, though. That Brooklyn accent always stood out in the UK.

Most recently, Noodle's been packing her things. She's tired of being alone, now, and is more than ready to leave Japan. She'd purchased plane tickets last month, and finally, she's within minutes of going home to Kong Studios. Honestly, she's ready to be a kid again. At first, (as in the first hour and a half), she'd enjoyed pretending to be an adult. But after awhile, she found it awfully dull. After all, she's only fourteen and doesn't have much of a childhood left, so why waste that time? She definitely feels she needs to get her boys back together; she feels if she doesn't, her memories of them will always feel bittersweet.

The girl has two small-sized bags of belongings by the time she's packed everything. Even with her messenger bag, it's still not much in the way of things. She'll probably go to one of the five cheap souvenir shops she had counted on the way to the apartment from the airport. The walk isn't even long; three miles at most. When she'd first arrived, she would walk back to a small park over by the airport and watch the planes go by, admittedly wishing she could be on one of them.

As it turned out, Osaka was rather boring to live in for the year she had to before her lease had expired. Especially with the fact that she hasn't had many interactions during that time; she had been too paranoid that someone would find out about her not-so-legal cover.

It has gotten to the point where her voice is weak from disuse. She absolutely hates it.

Noodle makes another round throughout her apartment for any belongings she might have missed. When she doesn't spot anything else, she says, "Well, this is bye. I am eternally grateful to you for keeping me safe." She says to the room as she picks up her bags. "Best wishes."

Picking up the key from the table, she starts to the door. Before she opens it, however, she spots the photo of the band on the ottoman. Rushing over, she picks it up and looks at it for a moment. "You three had better be all right." She mutters, carefully putting the cracked frame in the messenger bag with her laptop.

"Again, thank you." Noodle finally opens up the door. Taking a last look around at the emptied apartment, she sighs and leaves the room.

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Yet another month had passed. Noodle has been cleaning the interior of Kong Studios for that long when she hasn't been putting the finishing touches on her new album, probably titled 'Demon Days'. There's nothing much left to put into it other than the actual sound, really.

Murdoc had stupidly left the door to Kong unlocked. Although, nothing living had approached it. Instead, there had been dozens of demonic spirits and such that had made their home inside, much to the girl's annoyance.

Currently, she's close to finished with the cleaning. She'd cut her hair that morning after finally remembering that she needed it done. Noodle feels like she'd sliced an entire pound of hair off, though in reality it had been five inches and it was never really that heavy. She'd also noticed how thin she's gotten. All the baby fat had pretty much gone, and she's thin enough to see her ribs. That's too thin, she knows, but still doesn't find much motivation to eat more than what she has to.

She's grown a good foot since last time she'd been in Kong, though that only makes her four foot two. It's not tall by any stretch of the imagination, but it's at least taller.

Noodle's sitting in the dining room, now, her faded-pink toy rabbit clutched in her arms. Her papers are all spread out over the table. It's 20:17 in the evening. Despite the occasional groan from outside, she's gotten completely used to the silence. It's odd; she'd never liked it silent, but now there's not any way to fill the empty air by herself with anything but guitar practising, but she can only do that for so long without making her fingers bleed. That happens often, though. A lot of the time, she'll spend three hours practising scales, chords, all that; and won't stop until the three hours are up, even if her fingers do bleed before then.

She still sleeps in, sometimes until noon. Anything to pass the time. There's only so much cleaning one can do without going completely mad, after all. Her sleeping has improved a bit now that her memories are whole, but she'll still get awful night terrors.

Noodle is dozing off when she hears the click of a doorknob being turned down the hallway. This startles her awake, and she's immediately on guard. There's no one else in the grounds but her; so there's an unwelcome guest.

Her rabbit still in hand, Noodle leaps from her chair over to one of the drawers under the cabinet. She opens the one with the false bottom and lifts it up quickly, revealing a silver revolver. Speedily grasping ahold of the gun, she then parks herself on the center of the kitchen tile and pushes the safety off. She's glad she knows how to work a gun.

Noodle points it at the door when she hears heavy footsteps approaching it. Her free arm tightens around the rabbit as the knob turns. "Who are you?!" She demands in English, her voice steady despite the lack of use.

The door opens slowly, revealing a very large, shadowy silhouette

Noodle pulls the trigger, getting a bullet straight through the thing's hat, narrowly missing its head. The sound of the gun is so loud it seems to shake the entire foundation of Kong.

Grinning widely, she prepares to shoot again.

"Hold up, Noodle? Is that you, baby?" The voice is a bit hoarse. The figure steps into the room, revealing a disgruntled-looking Russel.

Noodle furrows her brow. "Russel..?" She asks shyly, setting the gun down. Her hands are unsteady as she takes a shaky breath and wraps her arms around her rabbit nervously. She looks away, her lower lip trembling. She'd promised herself she wouldn't cry, but.. He's here.

"Oh my god, Noodle.. You're so thin, you look like a skeleton.. And you've grown, holy shit, you've grown.." Russel sniffs loudly, bending over to pick her up.

When he does, Noodle begins to cry, tightly grasping onto Russel. "I-I.. I miss you.." She says between sobs. "You left me.. You left me alone, and-"

"Shh, baby, I know, I'm so sorry. So sorry." Russel interrupts her, unable to keep himself from crying, too. "I shouldn't have left you with them, and what the fuck do they do? Leave you by yourself. God, what was I thinkin'?" His voice is trembling.

Noodle looks up at his face to see his own tears. She reaches up and wipes them away with her thumb, though she can hardly keep it steady enough to complete the action. "N-no, do not cry, you should not cry," she mumbles, now wiping at her own cheeks.

"I missed you so much, baby, my god. I can't keep myself from crying, I'm so glad you're alright. Fuck, I'm so sorry for being such an asshole. You shouldn't have been alone, never should have been alone.." Russel draws in a shaky breath. "You're fourteen, I missed your birthday. Still got you a present, though, couldn't resist."

Noodle smiles at him, kissing his cheek. "Thank you. I have two for you, since you had left right before your birthday. I.." She shakes her head, burying her face in his shirt. "I am sorry for making you leave, and Murdoc, and Toochee." She begins to cry again, can't help herself. The guilt has been eating at her since that night.

"It ain't you. Never was, don't apologise." Russel pecks the top of Noodle's head, his grip tightening protectively.

"What else could it have been to make you all leave?" Noodle's mumbles, voice muffled.

"I don't even remember, it was real petty. I just couldn't take Murdoc's shit anymore, didn't even consider what you musta been feeling like. You were hurtin' bad, I know it now. But I couldn't see past my own damned nose and fix it." Russel has obviously been beating himself up about this for a long time.

"Please stay.. Do not leave me ever again. I was so lonely, and.." She trails off, eyes watery.

"Never. Never again, baby-girl. That wasn't right, I'm sorry." He says again. "You don't weigh nothin' at all, you ain't been eating well." Russel scolds gently, taking one of her hands. The fingertips are scabbed over, and the fingers themselves are skinny to the point where every bone's outline is visible. She's awfully pale, too, he notices, seeming so delicate that if she fell over she'd shatter into a million pieces.

"Nn.." Noodle mumbles, holding a fold of Russel's jacket in her hand. She doesn't want to explain that she had just been too lazy to eat, not to mention she had been too paranoid to go buy food while in Japan. "I've just forgotten to."

Russel shakes his head. "Can't do much about it when there ain't food in the house." He makes his way over to the table. "What's all this, then?" He asks.

"The new Gorillaz album." Noodle replies tiredly. The shock of seeing Russel is worn off; now she feels safer than she had in over a year. Almost safe enough to sleep.

"You did all this?" Russel sits down, careful not to disturb his kid. "By yourself."

"Hai." Noodle nods. "I do not know what to call it, yet. I was considering titling it 'Demon Days,' but I am still not sure." She yawns, her eyelids closing.

Russel sits there in silence for a good hour reading over her handiwork. She falls asleep in that timeframe, sometimes murmuring a word or two in Japanese. Russ is astounded by the quality of her music. How she's fourteen and had written this entire thing solo.

There's some crazy shit in the world, yeah?

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Hello, everyone!

It was a bit of a challenge to write this chapter, in a good way. I've been to Osaka three times, but still had difficulty envisioning it in the world of Gorillaz. Ledy, I hope I lived up to your expectations!! Let me know what you think!

So, again, if anyone has more writing prompts for me, don't hesitate to send them! I feel a bit as if there's a case of writer's block coming on, so I've got to prevent it, don't I?

Hope you all are safe and well!

Until next time,

Liz


	15. Some Chemical Load

[Phase 4]

Four-o' three in the AM. Murdoc sets the emptied beer can on the table, albeit shakily. He's downed seven at least, just in the past two hours. It's his birthday, after all, no one has the rights to tell him not to drink. Hell, no one ever does. So, here he is, drinking to his fifty-first birthday.

Russel's birthday had gone unnoticed by the world, much to the drummer's delight. He'd never been a big fan of birthdays, not since Del had gone all those years ago. Murdoc doesn't even think Russ himself had noticed. He's been caught up in the news about the recent stabbing and run-over that had taken place in London. Really, everyone had been, but Murdoc can't be serious all the time, it goes against everything he stands for.

Of course, it's awfully dull drinking alone. There's only so much fucking around one can do by himself, so Murdoc's decided he'll head upstairs and see if anyone else is still awake. Lighting a fag, he gets up and somehow manages to walk straight for most of the way. The lift is broken again due to a little mishap with some dish soap and rice, (blame Noodle), so he's forced to crawl up the stairs. Why was this a good idea, again?

Ten minutes later, he's made it to the top floor. Usually, it'll take him three at the worst to make it there. He opens the door to the den; there's light flooding through the cracks. Stepping in, the intoxicated man blinks his eyes slowly to adjust to the change in brightness. It takes a good thirty seconds to adjust, but he eventually does.

He's greeted by the sight of Noodle sleeping on the worn leather couch with her cat sitting on her back, looking rather annoyed at this interruption of silence. Murdoc knows that Katsu is more nocturnal than anything, (he'd learned that term back in grade school, how he still remembers it is beside him), so the cat hadn't actually been sleeping.

His gaze rests on Noodle's sleeping figure. There's those dark circles 'round her eyes, the same ones so prevalent on the rest of the band's faces. She's a very pretty little thing, yes, despite this. Murdoc is still in disbelief about the fact that she's twenty-six. It seems only yesterday she had burst from that FedEx crate and played that famous guitar solo, that little ten-year-old. She's still little, physically, but no one had much expected her to get very tall. Either way, she was what the band had needed, for sure. She'd been a looker even then, always very cute, nevermind that positively hideous bird Paula.. Paula.. Saltine? Whatever her last name was. No matter.

Murdoc notices the pile of papers thrown about. He's not sure what for; there's random sketches on some of them, others are filled with improvised sheet music. That's the thing about Noodle; even when she was a girl she'd been filled to the brim with countless song lyrics and melodies, and there's still no shortage of them coming from her. An absolute musical mastermind, that's for sure. Of course, nowhere close to the musical genius Murdoc himself is, no. No one will ever come close, not even Noodle.

Still, he takes the comforter from the recliner at the back wall and pulls it over the young woman, pressing a sloppy kiss to the top of her head. Noodle mutters something in Japanese, peeking an eye open to look at Murdoc momentarily. "Happy birthday, you ugly bastard." She mumbles groggily before closing it again, a small smile tugging at her lips.

"Hush, dove. Back to sleep." He replies, though he's still feeling a bit sentimental. It's not often he feels that way, only when he's so drunk he shouldn't be able to stand. That does happen rather often, yes, but usually when he's this drunk he either gets violent or just goes completely quiet.

Noodle grins slightly. "Shouldn't you be sleeping, though? It's late as all hell can be." That brown eye opens again.

"Hmm, no. I'd rather not, erm, rather not be. You, however.. Good night." Murdoc dims the den lights, knowing well how she can't sleep with them all the way off. She'd never been able to.

"..Oyasumai." Noodle yawns, turning over to face the couch. Within moments, her breathing slows again, and Katsu has repositioned himself on his owner.

Murdoc silently slides from the room, chuckling under his breath. That's one down, and he'll definitely not disturb her again if he values his life. Definitely not a morning person, Noodle. Then again, neither is he. He just happens to be awake right now.

He finds it funny how Noodle still likes to sit on Russel's lap, even now. When she's upset about something, Russ is always sure to spoil her in every way, and no one ever questions it. In return, or vice versa, she'll sit there and just hug Russel, especially when he's getting angry about politics or something of the like, (which happens on a daily basis, considering who the president is). They've got a good relationship, that's for sure, Lards and Noodle. They always have; Russel's been her father figure since the very beginning .

Walking, or slightly stumbling, rather, through the corridor, Murdoc notices the lights in the office are on. That's where Stuart spends his time when he's not playing around with Noodle in the den or sleeping. Really, it appears as if Stuart's becoming an insomniac again; he never seems to sleep anymore. Noodle had gotten him an abacus for his birthday, (one of those ancient Chinese counting things with the beads on it; Murdoc hadn't ever heard of one until only recently), and Stu has been counting on it non-stop since he'd gotten it. He enjoys counting, oddly enough, and he's got a thing for thatching, too. Not that the faceache is any good at it; he'd only learned to thatch recently. But he's improving on counting, just learned to count by threes. Stu likes to show off, so everyone feigns being impressed every time he debuts a new counting skill. Everyone but Noodle; she's always genuinely proud of her best friend's progress.

Opening the office, Murdoc sticks his head inside. Stuart's sitting in the spinny chair doing things with his abacus. "Faceache, it's late! Get to bed." Murdoc directs.

Stuart jumps with surprise. "Wha-- Oh, hello, Murdoc. I don't want to go to bed, I'm not tired." He protests.

"Do this one thing for my birthday. One thing! Without complaining!"

The bluenette processes this. "But it's not your birthday, um. Till tomorrow."

"Au contraire. Look at the bloody time, paper-brain," Murdoc nods to the clock sitting on the desk.

Stu does so. "Blimey, is that really the time?" His tar-black eyes widen.

"Yes. So I suggest you get your lanky arse to that bed before I make you." Murdoc cracks his knuckles meaningfully.

"Oh! Oh dear. Okay, then, um. Good night, Murdoc-- say, why are you still awake?"

"Got things on my mind, is all--Bed!" Murdoc yells, and Stuart rushes away quickly, sure to avoid being in arm's reach of the Satanist.

Once Stuart has gone to his bedroom, Murdoc shakes his head. That dullard needs all the sleep he can get; it's not good to look so tired constantly, makes the fans nervous. Not to mention it makes one painfully groggy all day, like hangover that doesn't go away until the next night.

Murdoc shuts the lights off. He's a bit tired, himself. The alcohol seems to be catching up. He's sure that he'll be asleep most of the day at this rate.

He heads back down the corridor, making a stop in front of Russel's door. He cracks it open a bit, glancing inside. Russ looks oddly peaceful, despite all the anxiety he has regarding the world's current state. Then again, he's spent countless nights awake worrying about current events, and the whole band knows it. Murdoc's sure that the only reason he's asleep is because Noodle made him promise to.

Murdoc carefully closes the door again, stuffing his hands into his pockets. He supposes that the trip upstairs wasn't much worth the effort of the actual stairs part, but at least his body is tired out. Who knows, maybe he'll sleep well for once.

He wakes up the next morning.. Well, afternoon.. To the sight of a handmade birthday card on the pillow next to his aching head and a hot cup of coffee on his nightstand.

..Maybe today won't be so bad, yeah?

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Hello, all!

This was written the day of Murdoc's birthday. It's very late, due to my posting schedule, but it's a thing. Hope you enjoyed it!

Leave a review; let me know what you think on this fanfiction! I also still need more prompts, so be sure to let me know if you've got any ideas floating round in that head of yours. :-)

Until next time,

Liz


	16. We're Looking Out On The Day

[Phase 1]

Moonlight shines on the water crashing down over the sand. It's a lovely sight to behold, tranquil as seeing a meadow of tulips rippling in the wind; or perhaps a waterfall pouring down in the mountains of Scotland.

It's Noodle's first trip to the beach, and the band have decided to take a little stroll down the sand, the main goal being to lower the young girl's energy level enough for her to be able to sleep. She hums as she and Stuart skip hand-in-hand ahead of the other two, though not too far ahead of Russel. Noodle's being sure that if there's any danger, she can immediately run back to Russ without much effort.

Russel himself is very tired, but still welcomes the bit of walking down the beach. It isn't often he gets to do so, so he'd might as well take the opportunity. Watching Noodle's boundless energy amuses him greatly. It's close to one in the morning and she's still not slowing down.

"Toochee, um! See!" Noodle calls over the sound of the surf. The young man looks over to her.

"What is it, luv? Did you find something?" 2D crouches down.

"A, um. Uh. Noodle, uhh," Noodle shrugs. "No, um. No know?" She points down to a tiny crab in the sand.

"Oh, how cute! It's a baby crab!"

"Huh?"

"A crab. A baby one." Stuart says a bit slower.

"Ooh." Noodle pauses. "What, um, a.. A cr-ob?" She pronounces crab with the developing British accent she's picking up from Murdoc and 2D. It's a tad confusing, considering she's also got a Japanese accent.

"Um, I suppose it's like a beach insect?" He suggests.

"What'd ya find, baby-girl?" Russel's caught up, and Murdoc's almost there, too.

"Oh! Rus-ol! Noodle cr-ob!" Noodle grins widely at the drummer before resuming her instigation.

"What she say?" Russel pauses, thinking it over. "Oh, a crab. That's cool," he replies.

"A, um, uhh, bab-ee cr-ob." She says.

"Don't touch it, though, it might pinch you." Stuart warns, though he's grinning. Noodle's so cute.

"Ohh. Pinch." She pokes at it anyhow, but all the crab does is rush off across the sand, lost in the darkness in a short moment. "No! Where a bab-ee cr-ob goes?" Noodle whines.

"Probably to go eat some dinner; I'm sure he's hungry." Stu replies.

"Um, uhh, wanted Noodle.. To, um. Cr-ob be Noodle.. Uh." She crosses her index and middle fingers on her right hand.

"You mean you wanted him to be your friend? Aww, that's sad he wandered off before you could introduce yourself.. Maybe we'll run into him again when we head back." The singer takes Noodle's hand, and she nods her head.

"Hai. Much a sad." She looks up at Russel. "Hmm, a Rus-ol a sleep? Want?" She asks, taking her father-figure's hand with her free one.

"In a bit, yeah. Bit too late for being up much longer. You're looking tired too, baby."

"Oh, no no, a-waked Noodle. No a sleep." Despite her protests, she tries to conceal a yawn behind Stuart's arm. Definitely getting sleepy.

Russ chuckles. "Right, well, we should head back so we can find Muds, yeah? Can't leave him alone too long, he'll blow something up or some shit like that."

"Hai, a Mu-doc." Noodle agrees, rubbing Russel's hand on her cheek. It's a bit chilly out, now that she's not skipping, and she doesn't much like it.

"Wonder why he's so slow. Maybe he started back before us." Stu suggests as they start walking.

"Probably, after today he looked ready to drop dead on the ground. Kinda wish he did." Russel replies, gazing down at Noodle.

"Yeah," Stuart squeezes her hand gently.

There's silence after his remark; everyone's back to listening to the ocean. A very nice sound, for sure.

Five minutes later, Noodle breaks the silence. "Um, Rus-ol. A up?" She requests, tugging on the large man's hand. "A up, um, uh, a up for ah. Noodle?"

Russ nods, bending over slightly to pick her up. "Gettin' tired, yeah, baby-girl?" He asks. Noodle's still got Stuart's hand.

"Well, it's a bit tough walking on the sand, cos our feet aren't quite used to it. I'll bet it's even harder for her since she's so small," Stuart offers.

"Yeah, I'll bet so. Her feet were sore already from being on the beach all day, she said they hurt." The drummer agrees.

"A ow." Noodle agrees, resting her forehead in the crook of Russel's neck, yawning again. She's facing the ocean, just so she can watch it while Russ walks. "Much ow, yeah? A hurt a Noodle shoe."

"Oh, sorry to hear it, luv." Stu frowns. "Mine are a tad sore, too. Guess it's getting late."

"Never thought I'd hear ya say that; you usually stay up way later than this." Russel shifts Noodle in his arms a bit.

"Well, um,.I guess we've been getting, um, lots of exercise. More than usual." Stuart lets his gaze wander back to the surf.

Russ chuckles a bit. "Mhm. Look, we're almost back to the rental house." He turns his head a bit. "Is Noodle still awake, Dee?" He asks.

"Hmm, she looks close to falling to sleep." Stuart responds, shoving hair from his eyes.

"Um... A Rus-ol." Noodle says, drowsy.

"We gotta get ya rinsed off so the sand don't get everywhere, so stay awake for another minute, baby." He urges, starting up the stairs to the walkway leading to the house.

"A sleep Noodle, hai Rus-ol." Noodle answers, her head lifting to glance back at the ocean one more time. Once it's out of view, the girl turns her head to gaze at the vacation house. The lights are on; Murdoc's sitting on the porch with a lit cigarette in his mouth and a bottle of rum in hand.

"A Mu-doc, see!"

"I was right, then, huh?" Russel nods his head.

"Glad we don't have to go searching for him, yeah?" Stuart grins. The trio stop at the spigot near the house to rinse off their feet and legs. The water makes Noodle squeal, but it's over as quickly as it'd begun.

"A cold, no good." Noodle remarks as she pushes the sliding door open. She doesn't get it very far; the door usually gets stuck about halfway. Luckily, she can slide right through the crack.

"Sorry, baby-girl. Had to be done."

Russel pushes the door open all the way, careful not to push too hard.

"Um. Russ, since it's the first night here, can we have a sleep over? In the, um, den." Stuart asks. "Uh, I don't like being alone in new places the first night."

"Ask Noodle, I don't care long as you get to sleep." Russ watches as Noodle runs up the stairs to see Murdoc.

"Oh, okay!" Stuart follows suit. Everyone's looking rather tired at this point.

Russel scratches his head, sighing. It'll be a bit of a struggle to get Noodle to bed at this rate. Maybe the rest of the week's nights will be easier to deal with.

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Now that the four are all situated in the den, the lights are dimmed and some show is on the telly. Stuart's the only one really paying attention to it. Noodle's wedged herself in the space between the back of the couch and Murdoc's chest. She'd been waiting for Russel to get out of the shower so she can snuggle up to him, and had ended up deducing that Murdoc's the next best thing until then; since Stuart's lying comfortably on the floor and she doesn't much want to disturb him.

"Uh, Mu-doc. See a babee cr-ob on, um, uh, on beach." Noodle says tiredly, her head rested on his chest.

"Oh, well. That's nice, dove. Didn't catch it, did you? Crab's bloody delicious, especially when paired with a nice glass of wine." Murdoc twirls a bit of her hair between his fingers absently, his gaze fixed on the telly.

"No eat! Bad, bad! Is bad. No good." Noodle exclaims, lifting her head to glare at the bassist.

"Fine, fine." Murdoc rolls his eyes as she puts her head back on his chest. "You don't eat the baby ones, anyway. Too small. Probably don't taste good."

Noodle sighs. "A cr-ob no be Noodle friend. Go bye bye."

"No? Well, that's unfortunate. Oh, but did you learn a new word? Haven't heard you say 'friend' before, unless I'm being daft." The man stifles a yawn.

"Hai. Toochee." The child shifts herself so she's fully on his chest now.

"Hm." Murdoc grunts. "Good word. Either way, that fuckin crab isn't worth being your friend."

Noodle is silent, listening to Murdoc's heartbeat. She finds his smell comforting. "Nn, a sad." She murmurs.

A chuckle comes from him. "Don't fall asleep on me, dove, I'm about to go take a piss." He tells her.

"A Mu-doc. Want."

Murdoc pries her off gently. "I'll be back."

"Hmph." Noodle huffs, glaring at Murdoc.

He sighs. "Spoilt brat." The man remarks as he starts to the toilets.

Noodle sits there for a moment before sliding off the couch and onto the floor. "Toochee?" She lays on the hardwood next to him. "Um. What Toochee do?"

Stuart looks at her. "Oh, watching the telly, luv. It's the Twilight Zone marathon, you see." He explains, reaching over to push hair from her eyes.

Noodle nods, snuggling closer to him. "Toochee warm. A good."

"Are you chilly?" 2D asks, letting her burrow into his arms.

"Hai. Chilly Noodle." Noodle agrees. "Want a Rus-ol, but. Uh. Take long." She explains.

"He'll be back any moment now, don't worry too much." Stuart fixes his dark eyes on the child momentarily.

She nods. "A show, what Toochee show be?"

Stuart frowns. "Hard to explain. The episode just ended, though, so you're in luck! Next one will be playing after the advertisements."

Noodle yawns. "Oh, a good." She wishes Russel were down, he'd promised her a bedtime story. "Um.. A sleepy Noodle."

Stuart nods. "Me too, but I don't want to sleep. This show's my favourite."

"Hai. Toochee a good." She doesn't know what he's saying; too focussed on staying awake.

"Thank you, luv..?" He seems confused, but it's nothing new. "Oh, it's starting, see?"

Her legs shift about until she's in a seated position. From where she had been, her view of the telly was obstructed by 2D's figure. She's hardly able to keep her eyes open all the way, but she's determined not to sleep yet.

They're about ten minutes into the episode when Russel and Murdoc make it downstairs, finally. Noodle's half-asleep at this point, but then jolts awake at the sound of their bickering. Leaping up, she barrels into Russel's legs, speaking rapidly in Japanese.

"Baby, slow down a little, okay?" Russel forgets about the argument with Murdoc for the moment. "Sorry I took so long, I got distracted by this piece of shit when I was heading down.. Round twenty minutes ago." He jabs a thumb towards Murdoc, who scowls and stomps to one of the couches. The other one's a futon; Russel had claimed it earlier. Noodle's probably going to share it with him; she's not big on being alone in new places at night, either.

"A Rus-ol. Um, uhh. Noodle, uh, want a Rus-ol, um, a sleep. Eee. Sleepy. A sleepy Noodle, yeah?" She looks exhausted; it's a very late night for her. Russel usually makes her go right to sleep at 23:00; save for her frequent playtimes with Del.

Russ picks her up, frowning. "I figured you would go ahead and sleep when I was showerin'. Didn't think you were waiting on me; I'm sorry. Let's get you to bed, then." Heading to the futon, Russel sits down and hands Noodle her stuffed monkey. The child snuggles up to her toy, humming a little.

"Rus-ol a good, is warm." Noodle slides from the man's lap. "Stay." She directs. The girl walks over to Murdoc, then bends over to make eye-contact. "Good, um, night, a Mu-doc."

He sits up and takes her into his arms. "Is it that time already? Well. Good night, little dove." Murdoc pecks her forehead. "More beach in the morning, now isn't that exciting?"

Noodle grins. "Hai, a beach." She hugs him, then sliding from his lap. "Mu-doc do a sleep." The child orders.

"We'll see. Nighty night." Murdoc replies, patting her head before laying back down.

"Nn." Noodle starts over to Stuart. "Toochee, um, good night. For sleep."

"It is a good night, yeah!" The bluenette sits up and hugs her. "You'll sleep well, please?"

Noodle nods, returning the hug tightly. "Sleepy, a Rus-ol do a sleep, um, and a Noodle sleep."

"Good, that's very good." He smiles, kissing the young girl's cheek, as is their custom at night.

"Night night! Love a Toochee."

"I love you too, Noods. Go on, then, Russ is waiting." Stu yawns.

Noodle nods again, walking to Russel and climbing back into his lap, monkey in hand. "Rus-ol sleep, yeah?" She asks drowsily.

"Mhm, I'm gonna. You too, it's time to sleep." Russel replies.

"Hai. Love a Rus-ol." Noodle's eyes close.

"Love you, baby-girl." He returns, kissing her forehead as well. The large man is glad she's finally getting to sleep.

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"Baby. It's time to wake up; it's morning." Russel says. It isn't really morning; more noon. Everyone else is still sleeping, though.

Noodle mumbles something, then shifting herself around into a more comfortable position on Russel's stomach. She's definitely still asleep.

Russ sighs, rubbing his forehead. He doesn't want to disturb her, but it's important that she doesn't oversleep, or she'll be grumpy for the rest of the day. "Noodle. Up, c'mon." He lifts her into a seated position.

Noodle's eyes open slowly. "Nnn..?" Her voice is soft.

"Ready to start getting to the beach?" Russel asks.

"Uh.. Urusai..." Noodle complains, burying her face back into Russel.

(Translation: shut up.)

Russ rolls his eyes. "C'mon, Noods. Up, let's get goin'."

"Nooo..." Noodle complains again. Russel shakes his head, pulling her into his arms so he can get up off the couch. His neck has that familiar stiffness that comes from sleeping weirdly, but he'd forgotten the painkillers back at Kong Studios. He'll just have to fight through it, much to his annoyance.

Moments later, she's back asleep. Russel chuckles a little at this; she's as stubborn as Murdoc, sometimes. Noodle still in his arms, he stands up and begins walking up the stairs; careful not to disturb the other two men. They can wake themselves.

After breakfast, they'll head back down to the beach.

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Hello, all!

This one took way longer to write than most; but I'm sure that's alright, considering how far ahead I am.

Not much else to say this time!

Thanks for reading; I hope you all are doing well!

Until next time,

Liz


	17. The River Ain't Deep

[Phase 1]

"You look like a living autopsy, Muds! Fucking shit!"

Russel's voice booms over the distant radio playing in the hospital room. "Do you know how worried Noodle is?! She cried, damn it! Fucking cried because you were being a dumbass and got yourself hurt."

"It's nothing, just a scratch. Why the fuck would you tell her I'm in hospital? You're the real dumb-arse, let me tell you!" Murdoc throws his hands up in exasperation. The IV in his arm moves slightly, causing the man to flinch involuntarily.

"Ain't nobody allowed to make my baby cry. I don't care what your excuse is. What were you thinking?!" Russel demands.

"Well, well. Story time, yeah? It all started when.."

_

"An ATV? What's that?"

Murdoc's soulfire eye flickers. He's awfully unimpressed with this salesman and his antics.

"Um. Well, sir, it stands for all-terrain-vehicle. It can drive on anything but water." The salesman has true-red hair and a pathetic excuse for a mustache; a little like 2D when he forgets to shave. "A real bargain, this one, at only ten thousand quid!" He tries, obviously attempting to hide fear at the sight of Murdoc's eye.

Murdoc, however, seems intrigued. "Tell me more; can I take it out for a little test run? Y'know, just a little go on it. After all, I can't very well decide if I want to buy it without any experience on one, yes." The man grunts after this, secretly plotting.

"Um! Yes, um. I can allow it, but just this once, and only because I trust you!"

"Dipshit." Murdoc mutters under his breath.

"Sorry?" The redhead looks at Murdoc.

"Oh, nothing, just thinking about how nice you are." The Satanist lies, swallowing back a fit of laughter. This is brilliant!

"Oh, um, thank you?" The salesman looks back at the product; a navy blue ATV next to him.

"I can give it a go, then?" Murdoc asks.

"Just for a moment, mister James." The young man smiles falsely. "You will have to sign my waiver, though. No problem, right?"

"Oh, sure, sure. Michael James, that's definitely my name." Murdoc reminds the salesperson, who appears a tad weirded out by the man. Once he's handed the waiver, Murdoc signs it 'Your God' in really large lettering, very careful to make it nearly illegible. "Here you are." He hands the clipboard to the bloke , unable to keep himself from grinning.

"Okay-okay, here's the key. Go ahead and drive to that tree and back, just for starters, okay?"

"Yes, right, yes." The green man takes the key, eye flickering. This will be fun. He strolls over to the ATV, looping the keyring around his pointer finger. Once he's next to it, he swings his leg over with a laugh. Putting the key into the ignition, he twists it, and the engine turns over immediately. Laughing, Murdoc then twists the handle all the way, causing the thing to go towards the woods at full speed. Bloody fast, that thing.

He doesn't look back as he rushes through the trees. Murdoc's dumbfounded with how damned stupid the salesman is. Then again he supposes that if the man had known who Murdoc Niccals is, he wouldn't have even tried to approach him. So now he's gotten an ATV that he doesn't need, and doesn't much know what to do with it. The petrol is at three-quarters full, another flaw in the salesperson's attempt to just let Murdoc try it out. Come on; it was like the guy was begging to be conned out of his product. Anyway, who tries to go door to door selling a bloody ATV?!

He doesn't think at all during the next thirty minutes; his first mistake. His second mistake? He's not watching his surroundings at all, only the ground ahead. So it's only natural that two hours into it, he falls off. Well, crashes into a tree. The smashed vehicle then falls into the river next to where the tree is, and Murdoc's out cold as he falls into the bank. His entire front feels raw, and the cold river water doesn't help it. Blood streams from him at an alarming rate, and it really doesn't look good for Murdoc.

The moment Noodle saw the breaking news story about a green man who stole an ATV, she screamed for Russel. Of course, she couldn't explain why Murdoc is on the news, just that she heard a description of Murdoc in the television.

It'd taken awhile for Russ to come down the stairs, just because the elevator's broken again. Apparently Murdoc had stolen the thing earlier that morning, maybe 10:00. So now it's 15:38 and they're only now reporting on it, meaning Murdoc's been gone for more than five hours without any sightings. That also means that Noodle's already fearing the worst.

"Russel! A Mu-doc in there!" Noodle yells, her finger pointed at the telly.

"What, baby?" Russel asks once he's downstairs. An alarmed expression's on his face, and it appears as if he'd run down the stairs.

"See!" There's an artist rendering of what the salesman had described of Murdoc's appearance on the screen. "A Mu-doc be gone! No Mu-doc, is no good!" Noodle exclaims, looking upset.

"Shit." Russel rubs his forehead. He doesn't have time for Murdoc's actions. "Uh, okay, hold on." He listens in on the television. Noodle shuffles over to the man's side, her eyes wide.

After hearing the news story, Russel grunts. "Welp, we'll have to go looking. Since Dee's visiting his folks, it'll have to be the two of us. Damn." He sighs, not willing to show how angry and annoyed he is by this situation. He can feel Del seething, too, which adds to the overall anxiety of it.

"Find a Mu-doc, hai. A good. A Toochee, also? Um.. Come to home?" Noodle looks pleadingly at her father figure, sticking out her lower lip.

"No, no Toochee. Not for another week, baby-girl." He shakes his head. "But we'll go find Muds before the cops do. God damn, what was he thinking?!"

The child shrugs, crossing her arms so she's mirroring Russel's standing position. "Um, uh. A stupid, yeah?" She suggests.

"Beyond stupid. He's so dumb that it's bordering suicidally idiotic, man. But, no more of this, let's go get shoes on."

_

It's been hours, now, and Murdoc's been drifting in and out of consciousness for that long. It's not good, seeing as it's roughly five minute intervals of wakefulness, and then at least twenty minutes of being unconscious. He's annoyed by this; at least he would be if he had the mindset. Luckily, during one of the periods of being awake, he'd pulled himself out of the river and his wounds are finally sealing themselves.

Murdoc knows he's lost a lot of blood. How long it's been is beside him, but that's aside the point. Right now, during his small periods of consciousness, he's trying to figure out what to do in this situation. It's not as if he can crawl, and even worse walk back. He'd been driving for hours. Then again, he literally won't get anywhere if he doesn't at least try.

So now Murdoc tries to drag himself across the ground. He gets about ten feet before he passes out again. This is going to be a long day.

Noodle and Russel have been searching through the forest for a few hours, now, to no avail. This has both intensely stressed out, Noodle nearly to the point of tears. She'd gotten tired of walking around ten minutes ago, complaining of painful feet, so Russel had picked her up and is repeating things relating to her being alright, and this does help her mood a little.

"Okay, so since we missed the cops and their investigation, that means we've still got the upper hand, so. Any minute now we'll find him, I bet. Any minute." Russel seems as if he's trying to convince himself. Really, and Noodle knows this, he's scared that they won't find him and then Murdoc will die. This is mainly driven by his past experiences with premature deaths. But, unfortunately, this fear is rubbing off on Noodle, though she's trying to hide it.

"Uhh, um. Um, Russel a okay, no scare, hai?" Noodle looks at her father figure pleadingly. She has his coat gripped tightly in her fist, waves of anxiety seeming to radiate from her.

"Don't worry, baby-girl. As long as you're safe, I ain't scared of nothing." He lies. Really, he'd never wish for Murdoc to die alone. The man's a piece of shit, but he's still part of their family.

The girl eyes Russ disbelievingly, but decides not to press the matter. After all, the more important issue is finding her Murdoc, preferably not dead. "Find a tyre?" Noodle points to a large tyre lying on the ground beside an oak tree. "See?"

"Huh, that's a bit weird. What would a tyre be doing out here?" Russel asks suspiciously. This might be what they're looking for. The thing isn't covered in leaf litter and such, so it's obviously not been there for long.

"Um. Big big." She kisses Russel's cheek before sliding down from his arms. "Noodle, uh, like a tyre."

Russ nods. "Okay, I'll look around here." He offers.

"Hai!" Noodle grins widely. She goes to sit on the tyre, humming. It's sitting by a lovely riverbank; one Russ had been following for awhile. Noodle wonders if there are fish in said river, because Stuart had told her awhile ago that fish love to swim in ripply water, and she's pretty sure that he meant moving water like this. Standing up, she steps a few yards over to the river. There's a lot of vines and such blocking the view of it, so she's careful not to get caught in any thorns.

Upon arrival to the edge, the girl notices that the bank's edge is corroded and slippery and decides to proceed with caution. After all, it'd be even worse if she fell in the water. Noodle's not even sure how well she can swim, since she'd never attempted to do so in living memory.

Her gaze wanders up the river as she bites her lower lip in concentration. It appears to go on forever, she notices, as her eyes zero in on a new detail. There's a huge chunk of metal lying over across the riverbank with three tyres matching the one she found earlier scattered about. Noodle squints her eyes a bit more against the sunlight. Is that...

"Russel! Russel!" Noodle shrieks, turning her head back towards the direction she came from.

The sound of running is heard, and soon Russ has squeezed through the vines and has made his way to the girl. "Noodle, baby, what's wrong? Are ya hurt?!"

"Up! A up for Noodle!" She begs, her eyes seemingly glued to the other side of the river.

Russel obliges quickly, though confused. "What's the problem, baby-girl?"

"Uh... Um. Is a Mu-doc? May-bee? Many a blood, yeah?" She points at a bloodied figure lying on the ground beside the hunk of metal. Noodle looks afraid, the figure isn't moving at all.

"...Shit, you might be right." Russel signs. " Hello!? Are ya okay over there?" The man calls. He then shakes his head at his own stupidity; of course whoever it is isn't okay, especially with all that blood.

There's no answer. "Hallo?! Is a Mu-doc?!" Noodle tries.

Waiting a beat, the silence fills the air before Russel says, "We're gonna have to get over there somehow."

"Uh, um. Noodle, Noodle... No swims." She looks nervous. "How a do?"

Russ glances at her a moment. "Hmm, I'll probably carry ya. There ain't no bridge anywhere near here; and I sure as hell ain't leaving you on this side by yourself."

"Good, good. We go?" Noodle suggests, resting her hand on Russel's shoulder as she turns to look back over at the figure.

"Mhm, hold on a sec." Russ lifts her back over onto his shoulders carefully. "Whatever ya do, don't let go of me, okay?" He says gently.

"Um. Hai-hai, Noodle's Russel, hold to." She confirms as Russel cautiously slides into the water after he'd taken his coat off and wrapped it around Noodle. The water's frigid, and he's not taking any chances of his kid getting hypothermia.

The swim is only around a minute long, but it feels much longer. At the end, Russel's gone numb, but he ignores it for now. Russ lifts himself from the water. He'd managed to keep missy of his shoulders from getting wet, but Noodle's legs still got drenched. So the moment he's completely out, he pulls Noodle down and pulls the coat as tightly as it'll go. "You okay? Not too cold?"

The tiny girl nods. "Um. Is okay, thank. Uh, small cold. Little." She grins widely at him.

"Good, let me know if you're too cold, aight?" Russel asks.

"Uh, hai." Sliding her hand into Russel's, she begins tugging towards the figure. "Must see!"

Russ allows Noodle to pull him, hoping that the movement will help him warm back up. "Careful, baby-girl, don't trip." He warns.

Noodle whimpers as soon as they're close to the figure. "Is... Is a Mu-doc? No, no, bad." She runs to the body, fighting back the urge to scream and cry at him. "Mu-doc, Mu-doc, uh, um, wake up. Wake up, Mu-doc." Her voice shakes with emotion.

Russel stares at the body. It's Murdoc, alright, but his entire front side is bloodied and rough, and his shirt is torn. The most distinguishing factor of it being Murdoc is his face, which is mostly intact. He's got a scrape on his left cheek and a gash across his chin. The man's skin is more clammy than usual, too.

"Mu-doc, please, Mu-doc." Noodle cries. "Word! Say it!"

There's a moment's silence before Murdoc's head moves slightly and an eye opens. "Uhn, Noods.. No yelling, it's early." He jokes despite himself. His voice is awfully weak.

Sniffling, Noodle takes his hand into hers. "Um-um, no good, Mu-doc a ouch, big. Many a bleeds." She explains.

"Oi, Lards, mind getting a bandage?" Murdoc calls, careful to keep his grip on Noodle's hand light. In all honesty, it does hurt quite a lot. Everything hurts. Damn this.

"Just you wait; we're going straight to the hospital with you. No excuses."

"I'm. Um, just. Just fine." Murdoc's voice wavers, and he's sure he's about to die. Then again, he's been sure of this for a good portion of today.

"Mu-doc, no- no die, is no good, please." Noodle begins to cry.

"All.. All water under the bridge, dove. I'm.. Uh.." The Satanist's voice trails off as his eyes close.

_

"I carried you to the hospital after all that. Couldn't leave her behind, not in her state. Poor girl was worried sick; convinced you'd gone and died." Russel finishes.

"Sweet Satan, I remember none of that. Well, her face, I do remember that part, come to think of it." Murdoc rubs his chin carefully. "Where's she gone off to?"

Russ sighs. "She's asleep in the empty hospital bed on the other side of your room. See?"

Both men's gazes shift to the opposite side of the place. Noodle's sleeping on the bed, a frown on her face. Her eyelids are reddened, meaning that she'd cried herself to sleep after being absolutely convinced that Murdoc is dead. He hadn't moved for hours since they'd been allowed in, and that's proof enough to the young child that Murdoc's not going to wake up.

"Oh, dear. She's the one who found me, then?" Murdoc asks.

"Yup. I wouldn't have seen you from where I was. It's all because of her that you're not floating 'round in Hell where you should be." Russel replies, sympathy spreading across his face at the sight of her. "She didn't stop crying at all since they took you in for surgery.. It's hard to console her when she's like that. Kinda hurts my soul when I can't fix it, ya catch? Del agrees with me on that one."

Murdoc grunts in reply. No, that is not guilt filling his mind, it's not. "Right, well. Wake her up, will you? I've, um, got some apologising to do."

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Hello, all! It's been a pretty great summer so far; I've made some new friends and reunited with some older ones. My summer league swim team season is almost over; it's bittersweet because I don't want to do the work because I'm lazy, but I still love the other people here. I've become the mum friend for the entire team, somehow. Kids are literally calling me 'mum' and I find it hilarious.

So, this chapter is probably going to be posted for me by my best mate, Lil; as I'm currently in Jamaica helping at homeless shelters and such! Hopefully I don't die; it's in the ghettos of Kingston.

This chapter? I'm not crazy about it, but it's a chapter. Hopefully it isn't as bad as I perceive it to be. Let me know! ;)

Until next time,

Liz


	18. 12D3

When Russel got sick the first time with Noodle around, it was hectic. The girl wanted to stay around him for as long as possible, but Russ wasn't risking her health, no. So, since Murdoc is being an utter dick and hiding in his Winnebago, "Can't risk getting ill, no, that's not right," he'd said; so this just leaves Stuart to take care of Noodle by himself for an undisclosed amount of time, much to his excitement and dread. Especially since Murdoc had threatened serious bodily harm to anyone who attempted to enter his 'safety zone'. Since poor Stuart doesn't know how to care for a child, it should be quite an interesting experience.

After Russel had hoarsely explained to 2D that Noodle's not allowed around him while he's ill (for her own good), and then shutting and locking his door to prevent any mishaps, Noodle was extremely distraught. And when she's distraught, it means that tears and screaming is plentiful, much to 2D's dismay.

"Want. A. Rus-ol!" Noodle shrieks, banging on Russel's door with every word.

"Noodle, stop! He's ill, Russ doesn't-- doesn't feel good!" 2D repeats loudly for the third time.

Noodle whimpers, flopping down onto the ground and kicking at the door rapidly. Stuart groans a bit, bending over and pulling her away from it. "That's so rude! If, um-- If Russel doesn't get rest, he won't get better, and then we'll never see him! We don't want that!"

Noodle begins to cry, not able to understand why Stuart isn't letting her come into Russel's bedroom and see him. It's not fair; she wants her Russel! Why isn't he letting her in?

"Oh, oh no, I didn't-- didn't mean to upset you!" 2D's voice shakes as he bends over to pick her up off the floor. "Don't-- don't cry, please.."

Noodle buries her face in the young man's bony shoulder. "Why?" She asks between sobs; the only thing she knows he'll understand.

"Um, um. Because I'll cry too, um." Stuart slowly begins walking away from the door towards the kitchen. Maybe if Noodle eats some breakfast, it'll help her feel a little better.

"Why?" Noodle asks again, shaking her head at his answer.

2D is silent. "Um, well. Because I don't like seeing you so sad, luv. Makes me sad too." He walks into the kitchen.

Noodle doesn't reply, instead trying to make sense of 2D's answer. In that time, her cries cease to the occasional hiccup; the tears only coming down her cheek once in a while.

"Noodle, luv, what do you want to eat?" 2D looks down at her.

Again, no reply, only a hiccup.

"Well, um. I don't really know how to cook like, um, like Russ can, just toast; is that okay?" Stu admits. "I can try to make, uh, something else, but only if you want it."

The silence is broken by a zombie groaning in the background, but that's it.

"Come on, luv, talk to me," he urges.

Still nothing comes from Noodle.

"Well, I'll be making toast, then. Do you want to get down?"

She shakes her head in reply, finally. A sigh of relief escapes 2D; he was afraid that she hates him. So now he's trying to grab all the ingredients of toast in one go. Mainly the stale loaf of bread, (which is still good enough for toast), jam, and some butter. However, this doesn't go as planned and so he ends up dropping the bread and losing his balance. Before he can stop himself, he's fallen onto the floor.

For some reason, this causes Noodle to burst out in giggles. "Um! A Toochee fall!" She says between laughs.

"Yes, yes, I seem to have fallen! Whatever shall I do?" Stu grins at Noodle as he picks himself off of the floor and resumes the process of preparing some breakfast.

"Um!" Noodle starts, "Toochee. Uhh, is, um. A good, hai?" She asks, patting his cheek.

"Oh, yes. This happens often, I'm just fine. You aren't hurt, right?" He checks her over frantically, sure to pay special attention to her legs; they would be most likely to have gotten injured.

Noodle looks confused. What does he mean? "Why?"

"Because I want to put bandages on your, um, your hurts if they do hurt." He explains.

Noodle's still not sure what he means by that, but nods her head and says, "Ohh."

Stuart is sure to set Noodle on the countertop before attempting to make the toast again. Not taking any more chances. "Good, you have no hurts on your legs. Heh, I. I was a bit afraid that if you did have one, Russ would break my nose." He starts putting slices of bread in the toaster. The bluenette is trying his best to not burn himself or the bread.

"Rus-ol.." Noodle looks down, her lower lip trembling. "No a Rus-ol, is gone.."

Stuart squeaks a bit, rushing back over to her and wrapping his lanky arms around her. "Oh, oh no, don't be upset, luv, Russell is only- is only resting! He's not gone!"

She sniffles a bit, but decides she doesn't want to cry since it didn't work last time. It made her nose all runny. However, she's still missing Russ. This is the first time since she'd arrived at Kong Studios that Russel hadn't been there to wake her up or vise-versa, and that's very upsetting. "Toochee.." She returns the hug, at the same time glad that she's not stuck with Murdoc in this situation.

"Ssh, it's all right. Let's, um, get your milk, yeah? Chocolate? D'ya want chocolate milk?" 2D asks, trying to get her mind off of Russel's absence.

Noodle makes a humming sound, sliding down from the countertop and rushing over to her calendar, the one on the refrigerator. She takes the marker stuck to it off and draws an 'X' over yesterday's date. "Um. Toochee, read?" The child points to the day's title.

"Oh! Um, it. It says, Wednesday." He explains after making his way over.

"Uh? Is a.. Um. A week-and?" Noodle asks him.

"No, not today. There's," Stuart counts quietly, "three days until weekend."

"Ohh. Umm! Rus-ol say. No shocku-let milks, uh. Uh, no shocku-let milks, only. Uh, week-and." Noodle explains. "Um. Strob-uree milks."

"Oh, you get strawberry milk, then, today, yeah?" Stu nods. "Okay, I'll check on the toast and then you can have some strawberry milk."

Noodle nods rapidly before heading back to the countertop. "Um, uh. Um, Noodle up?" She points to it.

"What? Oh, yeah, just a moment, please," he picks up the slightly scorched bread from the toaster, then setting it on a plate quickly after it burns his fingers. "Ow!" He complains before going over to Noodle and lifting her back onto the counter.

"A ow?" Noodle asks, taking his hand and examining the reddened fingers. "No good." She presses a small kiss to each burn; much like Russel does when she's gotten hurt. "Is, um. Is fix."

Stu giggles. "Oh, how cute!" He pecks the top of her head before turning back to the toast. "Much better, now."

Noodle grins slightly at 2D before resuming her sullen stature. "Wants a Rus-ol."

"I'm sorry, luv. He'll be back before you know it!" 2D grins at her. "But we'll have fun today, how does that sound?"

Noodle just nods even though she has no idea what he means. It's a cycle, she's noted, and not one she likes. The only person she can remotely understand is Russel, due to the fact that he's got a clearer way of speaking and no confusing British accent. The Brooklyn accent isn't a problem; it's calming to listen to, although she likes the other two's accents, as well.

"Here's your milk, little luv." 2D hands her a cup of pink milk. He'd mixed in the powder stuff he had found in the cupboard.

"Hmm, thank." Noodle sips at the beverage. "Is a good, yeah?"

"It smelled good, yeah! I'm so glad you like it." Stu puts two plates stacked high with toast on the table. He then gets Noodle off of the counter and carries her to her chair; the one across from his. They've all got designated seats, though it's unspoken that they're actually designated. Russ usually sits next to Noodle, Murdoc sits on the edge closest to the refrigerator, and Stuart's directly across from Noodle on the farthest side from the bassist.

Of course, Murdoc doesn't often come up to eat with the rest of the family. Instead, he tends to eat frozen box dinners in his Winnebago. That is, it's what the others think he does, since he never seems to eat at all.

Noodle takes a bite of her toast, deep in thought. "Uh, um. Pu-lay with Noodle? Uhh. After." She points down at the plate of food.

"Yes, of course! We can play all day today! Well, Russ said that you have to work on your English, um. But after that, we can play more!" 2D looks excited; this will be a fun day! "And watch zombie movies; you like that idea?"

"Oh, a good." She says with a hum. Her mouth is full.

Stuart grins. He loves the idea of a day filled with playtime. Again forgetting to take a bite of the food in front of him, he gazes at Noodle. "Oh, how lovely! I think that we'll have so much fun together! What do you want to do first?"

"Um!" Noodle appears deep in thought. "A... Shirt. A day, no night no more. See?" The child points to the window. It's dreary outside, as it always seems to be around Kong Studios, but that's no matter. After all, they've got sunshine inside in the form of Noodle. Or sunshine in a bag. Take your pick.

"Oh, right. Changing from your pyjamas? Good idea." 2D is in pyjamas, himself, but he doesn't normally remember to change clothes unless a certain drummer threatens him with bodily harm, death and dismemberment, etcetera. Or if Noodle asks him to.

Noodle nods again. "Uhh, um." She points at his food. "Toochee eat."

2D looks confused for a moment before he complies. "Right, eating. Got carried away without, um. Russel to remind me. Thanks, luv!"

The girl grins at him. "Good, good. A good Toochee." She compliments. "Does a.. Does a Noodle hair? Help? When done, uh. Done eat."

"What? Oh! Yes, I can try to. Um. Will do my best." 2D replies, setting down his fork. He's only eaten half of the meal,.but hardly does eat more than that.

Her gaze rests on his plate momentarily before she pushes half of hers away, too, just to mirror him. "Is done, all done. Bye bye a food."

Stu notices this. "Oh, already? Guess you weren't too hungry?" He doesn't realise, however, that she's just doing it because he's doing it. After all, it's not like he knows how a child's brain works.

"Um. Hai?" Noodle seems confused, sliding down off of her chair. "Um. Del. Del play, um. With Noodle, um. And a Toochee?"

"Ha, okay! We can call for him later on, but now we get, uh. Get clothes on and brush your hair." Stuart nods, a front-toothless grin on his face.

Noodle does a thumbs-up, humming. "Go does a thing?"

"Yeah, I'm done. Off we get."

2D had ended up doing some strange hairstyle where there's a pigtail on top of Noodle's head and one on the side, but she loves it.

So, in turn, Noodle's convinced Stuart to let her paint his fingernails. After all, it isn't as if there's anyone else around for it. Murdoc sometimes lets her, but right now the man is, er, absent. Anyhow, she's sure that he'll look just as pretty as the Satanist does with his nails done.

Eventually, when she's finished, Noodle giggles. "A good! Nice, uh. Nice Toochee, yeah? Um. Colour. On a, umm, hand!"

"It's really lovely, yeah! I think the rainbow colours are gorgeous; you picked perfectly." Stuart agrees. It's a genuine compliment, too, even if she had painted his fingertips along with the nails.

"Um. Noodle hand? Toochee color, um, uh. Colour Noodle hand?" The Japanese girl requests, grinning widely.

2D hesitates. "Um, well. Can give it a go, but. It, um. Might not be the best. Heh." He warns, attempting to get one of Noodle's nail paint bottles opened without smudging the wet polish covering his nails. Of course, he eventually gives up and then resorts to using his molars to open it, which works a bit better.

"Alrighty, then! Here we are." He's a bit shakey, but that's normal for him.

Noodle nods encouragingly, a smile growing on her lips. She watches Stuart as he carefully paints her nails, focussing on keeping steady as she can. After all, she doesn't want to mess him up, that would be rude.

Eventually, he's done. "Oh, I did lovely, didn't I? How pretty they are!"

Noodle laughs. "Hai, Toochee a good girl." She uses 'good girl' as a compliment. It's what Russ does when Noodle's succeeded at something, after all.

"Oh? I'm no girl, silly! I'm a boy!" 2D laughs. "Do I look like a girl?"

Noodle tilts her head, confused. "Um! Is Toochee." She answers, scratching the back of her neck.

A nod. "Yeah, that's right. I'm 2D!"

"Toochee. Um. A good girl."

"I'm not a girl, but thank you!" He grins, his front teeth gaps showing.

"Nnn. Um, play, uh. Play more?" Noodle makes grabby hands at Stu, and he picks her up carefully.

"Yeah! Unless you want to work on your English now?" He suggests.

"Hmm. Hai. A, um. A word." Noodle nods.

Stu nods back. "Okay, so. Russ said that you need to learn counting, at least start today."

Noodle tilts her head. "Huh?"

"Um. Numbers. Y'know, one, two, three?" He tries.

"Too..chee?" Noodle asks.

"Yeah! Like.. One, 2D, three!" He jokes.

The child processes this. "Uh! Wan, Toochee, free?" She attempts.

"Close, try again. One. 2D, three." The bluenette grins.

"Wan, Toochee, free." The girl repeats.

Stu giggles. Shrugging, his grin widens. "Eh, close enough. Want to make a song to help you remember?"

"Hai, a Toochee sing." Noodle agrees, her head resting on his shoulder. "Noodle a gui-tor?"

"You want to play your guitar? That's a great idea!" 2D replies. "You want to go get it, luv?"

Noodle grins. "Hai! Um. Toochee, uh. Pia-nou?"

"Sure, I can get my piano! This will be fun; much better than school."

"Huh?" Noodle tilts her head again.

"Um. Nothing. Guitar?"

"Oh!" Noodle slides from his lap and runs out of the room at full-speed. This is exciting, she gets to write a song with 2D!

She's back quickly, though carefully. Doesn't want to hurt her guitar. The girl grins when she sees Stu messing round on his Casio; doing randomised chords.

She'd forgotten that chords could be done on pianos. "Oh! A good, Toochee play, um. Cord." He'd been playing a 'D' most recently. She can tell by ear.

"Yeah! Same as guitar chords. Only. Piano. Heh."

"A good. Toochee play a, um. Gee?" Noodle does a 'G' chord on her Fender.

Immediately, Stuart does the same.

"Um.. A eee? Um. Eee, uh, um Minor?" She requests.

The young man pauses. "Um. Don't remember that one. I don't have my piano chord dictionary. Lost it years ago." Stu seems a bit embarrassed.

"A.. Buy it? Um. Uh. The pia-nou, cord, um." Noodle shrugs, not knowing how to pronounce 'dictionary'

"I'm broke-- say, that's not bad! Won't you buy me, piano chord dictionary? Rhymes well. Very." Stuart beams.

Noodle nods. "Oh, um. Wan, Toochee, free. Diku-naree." She points out.

"Yeah! One, 2D, three, won't you buy me, piano chord dictionary? I'd better write that down, yeah?" Stuart grins.

"And, uh. Sing. Wan, Toochee, free? Sing it, hai?" Noodle requests.

"Can't yet, I don't have a melody in my mind. Think you can, um. Can play something on your guitar?"

"Ohh! Hai, play on Noodle guitar." The child begins strumming, humming along a bit of a vocal melody. "I Toochee," she hums, "wan you buy me, pia-nou cord, diku-naree?" She sings, eyes looking faraway as she improvises.

Stuart nods along. When she softens her strumming, he then improvises a simple piano solo. "One, 2D, three... One, 2D, three," the bluenette repeats. He then goes into the chorus.

"I'm 2D," he hums, "won't you buy me," another hum, "piano chord dictionary?"

Noodle grins widely. "Wan, Toochee, free.." She repeats, their voices seeming to flow with the guitar.

Twenty seconds of pure instrumentals later, they finally end it smoothly.

There is a moment of silence before they talk again. "You know, it sounds great! Almost like it's 'want to be free'."

Noodle nods. "A good! Pre-tee. Toochee again?"

He laughs. "Of course! We'll practise once more and then record it for the other two guys?"

"Hai!! Oh, Toochee sing. All, umm. Uh. Words. No Noodle sing."

Stuart frowns. "What? Why not? You sound so lovely!"

Noodle shakes her head. "No good. Hears.. Um... Sounds.. Uhh, a bad, Noodle."

"That's not true! But. I won't force you.. But your voice is very good, don't think otherwise!" Stuart sighs, still frowning.

"No! No sads. Toochee sing, Noodle guitar." She reiterates.

"Okay. Let's give it another go, yeah?" 2D finally smiles.

Hello, all! This is based from another string of YouTube comments; this time from the song '12D3'. It's, again, written and performed by the Gorillaz!!!

My trip to Jamaica was great! I've just been so busy! I've got a week or two before I start back up with college.. I hope I can stay motivated to update this fanfiction..

Hope your summer's been going great! Any highlights so far?

Until next time,

Liz


	19. To Have Me Crystallised

[Phase 1]

(Noodle's dialogue is in Japanese unless otherwise specified. I'm lazy.)

She doesn't want to go out there in the snow. It's unfamiliar and white. Why would there be white on the ground?! What would cause it? Frankly, the whole idea of white powdery stuff falling from the sky really makes her nervous.

So, while Russel's taking a nap, Murdoc's decided it'd be a laugh to lock Noodle outside for a bit. Just so she can experience the snow in all its cold glory. He'd at first thrown her guitar case out into it, because that's apparently the only thing to get her to go out. His father used to do that to him, after all. Murdoc's told her that her guitar is in there, as well, but he knows better than to actually damage it. However, Noodle wouldn't put it past him.

She's gotten her case back from over by the dead cedar tree, but when she came back to the door, it was locked. The little girl bangs on the large doors, but all she gets in reply is the sound of snow falling on the ground. Letting out a whimper, Noodle gives the things one more knock before setting the case directly under the frame, (she is glad to see that her beloved guitar isn't actually in there), and then steps back out in the flurry. She'd not bothered to put on a heavy coat, just because she had thought that she'd be right back inside. But now she feels stupid for falling for Murdoc's joke. And she's cold; the green sweater isn't doing much for her.

Noodle is glad, however, that she'd put her rain boots on instead of her red sneakers. Her feet are dry for the time being. Crossing her arms to conserve heat, Noodle begins walking round the building, looking for an alternate opening. If she finds one that's locked, she'll try to kick it open. If she's not too numb by then.

Angry, she begins ranting to herself in Japanese.

"Why would Mu-doc do that? It's evil! It's cold and wet out here and I don't know if I can get back inside.. Maybe I can climb the building if nothing's open down here." Noodle deliberates, beginning to run through the snow. She can feel her cheeks flushing, and it feels like her heat is radiating off of them. This makes her nervous, but not much is helping other than the movements. Of course, she then ends up tripping over something hidden and falling face first into the slush.

"No! Bad!" Noodle shrieks, dusting the flakes from herself. Her fingers are numb, she notices. After she's done her best to wipe the snow off, she stands again. When she begins running again, she groans at the realisation that her pants have grown heavy with ice. So she's forced to keep walking. Eyes squinted, she looks at the building with desperation as she moves. It's not fair, not good. Noodle's so cold now, and the wind isn't helping at all.

It's been twenty minutes now, and eventually she's back at the front entrance. All of the other doors are metal, and therefore rusted shut, so she couldn't open them no matter how hard she tried. There's not much in the way of shelter, either, considering how unpredictable the wind is, and Noodle's desperate. After a few tries, (she can't feel her fingers at all, now, except for a painful tingling,) the child manages to get her guitar case opened. Backing herself into the small corner by the door, she puts the guitar case in front of her, hoping it'll block some wind. The girl then curls up as much as she can, shivering violently. She's definitely looking forward to getting her revenge on Murdoc. And she wants her Russel. And Stuart. But nobody's come yet. And so, she waits.

"Hey, Murdoc, have you seen Noodle round?"

2D stands in front of the bassist's Winnebago, a lit fag twirling between his fingers. "She's, um. She's not with Russ." He explains, trying not to appear nervous.

Murdoc grins. "Ha! She's just outside! I tricked her into going! Isn't that hilarious?!" The Satanist laughs, as if it's the funniest thing he's ever accomplished.

"Um. Murdoc-- Murdoc. It's, uh. It's blizzarding out-- outside." The bluenette definitely looks nervous, now. "How- how long's, um. How long has she been out?"

"Bah, not long. Maybe an hour. My father used to do the same to me, I was always just fine." Murdoc tries not to admit to himself that he'd forgotten about her being out.

"Uhh, uh, uh. Murdoc, there's no shelter out there! Did you lock her outside in a fucking blizzard?!" Stuart's voice is steadily raising.

Murdoc hisses. "Keep your voice down! She'll be fine, I'll go let her in. Was just a joke, she was too scared to go outside, so I made her! Didn't mean anything of it!"

The singer groans, rushing away towards the lift. "You can't just lock a child outside like that! She's so little, and she must be so afraid! Oh no, oh no! Russel's gonna kill me!" Fag forgotten, Stu begins sniffling. His eyes have gone white with fear for the tiny girl.

"Why would he kill you? It was me who did it! Though, I could blame you. I could." Murdoc seems thoughtful as the lift goes up towards the lobby.

"Please don't," 2D says quickly, his foot tapping impatiently.

Murdoc hums along to the lift music, which is still Stairway to Heaven played backwards. Eventually, the ding sounds and the doors slide open. Stuart immediately breaks into a run towards the doors. Murdoc follows, only he's just walking at a brisk pace.

2D unlocks them as quickly as he can, then pulling them open.

Quickly, his gaze falls upon the girl curled up in the corner next to the entrance. "Oh no. Oh no." 2D rushes over, flinching at the stinging wind. He picks her up, then rushing back inside, dragging the guitar case with him.

The doors slam behind the pair as he gently sets her down in front of Murdoc. "Mur-Mur-Murdoc, she's not moving. Murdoc." The bluenette's words slur together as he drops to his knees.

The bassist feels his heart drop into the pits of his stomach.

"Shit, oh Satan. Fuck, fuck- Noodle, dove, Noodle. Wake up. Come on, wake up." He finds himself begging. He lowers his hand down to shake the girl.

"Noodle, it's not bedtime. Don't sleep yet!" The younger man begins to cry. "Please, please wake up."

Moments pass before there's any movement from the small girl. "Nnn.." Noodle moans quietly. She's never felt so cold. In fact, she feels so cold that it almost feels warm.

"Stuart. Get Russel, now."

"But-- but--"

"NOW." The green man yells. He begins rubbing at Noodle's arms, trying to generate some form of heat. "Noodle, darling. Noodle, you're alright. It'll be alright. Don't fuckin die on me, you're better than that." Murdoc mumbles to her. She's so cold, so cold. But, she feels alive. Only just.

Stuart runs off as quickly as he can manage, wailing. He's so terrified that he'll lose his best friend because of Murdoc. Just like he lost his girlfriend, but this is much worse than that! Noodle is a child! Nothing but a baby!

By the time Russel's downstairs with Stuart, the singer is convinced that Noodle's dead. She's just too little to be able to generate any heat fast enough, right? Noodle's just so thin!

"What have you done to my baby?!" Russel yells, absolutely shaking with anger. "What did you fucking do?!" The drummer pushes Murdoc away from Noodle. "Get away, you piece of shit! Noodle, baby. Noodle." Russ kneels down. "Noodle, say something. C'mon, say something." The large man pulls her into his arms.

"It was an accident, damn you!" Murdoc defends himself. "An accident!"

"I don't think locking a little girl outside in the snow is an accident!" Russel is beyond pissed. "She don't even have a coat on!"

There's a small movement, a flutter of Noodle's eyelids as she registers this new source of heat. Even opening her eyes is a challenge, but she does it.

"Russ, look! Her eyes!" Stuart exclaims. "I'll get blankets! And dry clothes!"

Noodle groans again, the shivers returning. "Ow.." she whispers, trying to make her vision focus.

"Oh god, oh god. Noodle. I'm so sorry, Noodle." Russel sniffs loudly.

"No.. No cry, Rus-ol." The ten year old weakly reaches her hand up and rests it on his cheek. She can't stand seeing him cry.

The man forces himself not to flinch at how cold her hand is. He rests his on it, wishing she could be warm again. "I'll try-- try not to." He promises.

"Mu-doc.." Noodle slowly turns her head. "Where."

"Here, dove." Murdoc feels too guilty to look her in the eyes.

Noodle weakly kicks her leg out and taps him on the shins. "No good." Her voice is a bit stronger, now.

"I know. Should've thought the, er. Joke out so you didn't get hurt." Murdoc admits. "I guess I probably shouldn't have figured that you'd be alright; I never was when my father did this kind of shit to me, yeah?"

"Hmm. Is, um. Is good. Fine." Noodle replies, the warmth from Russel finally seeping into her body. She takes Russel's hand and presses it to her lips. "Gomenasai." She apologises.

"For what? You ain't done anything wrong." Russ rubs a thumb over her cheek. "You just scared me, I thought you's was dead." He explains gently, expression soft.

"No, no. No dead." Noodle murmurs. "Cold. Um. Much."

"Yes, I know." Russ holds her tighter, as if she could be snatched away from him at any given moment. "We'll get you better, I promise."

Hello, all!

Dunno where this idea came from, but it's there. I managed to write this chapter in roughly an hour and a half! I'm so relieved!

Apparently all my friends on g read this fanfiction. I have friends!! Haha!! But also school is starting up soon and I'm really excited. I'm ready for winter, damn it!

Thanks for reading! Leave me a review!

Until next time,

Liz


	20. Watch The Colored Animals

[Phase 1]

NOTE: in Phase 1, Noodle's age range went from 8-12.

Between the planning of the Gorillaz' debut album and the adjusting to life at Kong Studios there really doesn't leave much free time for Noodle. So, when her birthday rolls around, there's not much she can really say about it without sounding demanding. She's sure her boys will remember it, so she doesn't bother mentioning it to them. Otherwise, she's sure that Murdoc will complain and be all upset about her being too ungrateful for all he's been doing for her.

But really, she knows it's mostly been by the efforts of Russel and 2D that she's as lively as she is now. Not that she doesn't love Murdoc, though. He can just be.. Difficult, maybe a bit scary. And very gross at times, (well, most of the time), and overall a terrible person. Not usually to her; most of his violence is directed at 2D and sometimes the zombies outside.

Here it is, now, the day before her tenth birthday, and she's awfully nervous that they've forgotten all about it. She had heard 2D give a passing thought about All Hallows' Eve being tomorrow; but aside from that, nothing.

Currently, she's lying in Russel's bed and watching a cartoon on his small black-and-white telly. The sound is low, she's mainly in there because he's downstairs in Murdoc's Winnebago discussing the album. Another thing is that she loves to be surrounded by the pictures on his wall; both the ones from her colouring books and the ones of the friends he's lost. She knows that they're still with Russel, she's very perceptive to them, but nevertheless she still feels their life from Russel's pictures. So much so that she feels as if she'd known his friends personally, though she's really only met Del. And she loves Del, he's her best friend along with 2D. She hasn't gotten to see him recently, though, he's been inside Russel. And since Russel's not been sleeping well, Del's not been able to come out. Mainly, it's been his choice since he runs off of Russel's energy. Del has been able to determine whether there's enough energy left for Russ to be able to function.

Still, it's been a few hours since her father figure had gone down to the car park. Noodle reckons she'd better go check to make sure that Murdoc and Russ haven't killed each other. With a small yawn, Noodle wraps one of Russel's smaller blankets around herself and starts off down towards the lift. She loves this blanket in particular; it smells like Russel the most. It's the blanket that he's had since he was a baby, so it's her favourite. She's just sure to be careful with it; better to be safe than sorry. The girl hits the down arrow and taps her foot as she waits, examining her calloused fingers as she waits.

It's strange for her to think about how she'll be ten years old tomorrow. She feels way younger. Then again, there's a definite gap in her memories from before her arrival; the farthest back she can remember is that awful trip in the cramped FedEx crate, where she lived off of two and a half boxes of 'Kellogg's Frosted Flakes' cereal and a twelve-pack of 'Coca-Cola Lite'. That was awful. Whoever had mailed her to Kong Studios definitely did not know how to take care of a child. Though, she's glad she's still here; Noodle loves her boys.

The girl arrives in the car park, stepping out of the lift. With a hum, she tightens the blanket around her shoulders; it's awfully chilly down here. Walking over to the door, Noodle knocks. Usually, she wouldn't bother with knocking, but she knows that the others are probably busy.

The door opens to reveal an exhausted Murdoc. "What?! Oh, it's you."

"Umm. Is Mu-doc dead?" Noodle asks, tilting her head.

"No, no, I'm just fine. I guess you can come in; Lards and the faceache are here." The Satanist says, stepping aside to let Noodle in. She grins, giving him a hug as soon as she's in.

"Uh, thank! Good Mu-doc." The Japanese girl says after letting go of Murdoc. "Russel? Toochee?"

"Back here, baby," Russel's deep voice calls from the back of the Winnebago. Noodle's surprised that the smell isn't as bad as usual; she figures that Murdoc's cleaned in here recently. He cleans whenever he's indecisive or frustrated about something; Russel always jokingly compares Murdoc's behavior to a worried mother.

She makes her way over to the small table where they sit, still humming. "Hallo!" The child hugs 2D before she climbs to Russel's lap. The girl notises papers spread about; some crumpled and some with unfinished instrumentals written. "Write, um. A music? Uh. Still?" She seems impressed.

"Oh, yeah! We're almost done with Re-Hash. That guitar rhythm you wrote fits perfectly, Noods." Stuart compliments, leaning over to peck her forehead.

Noodle grins widely. "Ohh, hai. A good. Guitar, uh, and the, the ban-jou," she reminds him. "For, um. Solo."

"Right, that banjo part." Russ nods. "Real good. Real good." His arms go around her. "You had a good nap? I see you got my blanket still."

"Hai! A Russel blanket." She rests her head on his chest. "Smell good."

Russ laughs. "Good girl." The man says, writing down another string of notes on the paper. Noodle plays the notes in her head as she reads them.

"Um. No, no, put.. Put." She sticks her finger on a small section of chords, specifically the bass line for the first verse. "Uh, scale, um. Letter.. Letter 'G' scale. In, umm. Five-five. Try."

Murdoc takes his seat next to Russ. "That would make sense. It would add, uh. A tad more consistency, yeah?"

Stu nods. "But that's what I said earlier, remember? Before Russ came down?"

"No, you said the 'E' scales. Which completely fucks up the key you start out with on that damned verse. I said that earlier, too, paper-brain." Murdoc appears ready to whack 2D again, even raises his fist, but one scathing look from Russ causes him to mumble something regarding how sweet Satan is and then pound said fist on the table. This causes both Noodle and Stuart to jump with surprise, while Russ just shakes his head.

"I told you's not to do that shit around her. She don't need to see it, man." The large man has a threat laced into his voice as his arms tighten around his kid protectively. "I gotta say it again, imma fuck you up again. You catch?"

Murdoc waves him off, annoyance very apparent. "Oh, shut up. He deserves every bit of it."

This brings a whimper from Stuart.

"The fuck you just say?" Russel cracks his knuckles. "Looks like you need a reminder that ya don't get to talk to me that way."

"No fight, stop!" Noodle shrieks, eyes wide with fear. "Bad!"

"Why does she get a say, again?" Murdoc glares at Noodle, who glares back with just as much mental force. "She's only a bloody child!"

"She deserve it more than you do, cracker ass." But Russ lets himself relax again, just enough that it satisfies Noodle. "Don't even start getting on her about your motherfuckin problems."

"Besides, it's her birthday tomorrow, remember?" Stuart points out. "You should be, uhh. You. You should be nice to her."

He's greeted with stunned silence.

"Shit." Russel mutters. "That tomorrow?"

Noodle nods, her face falling. "Russel forgetted? Mu-doc forgetted?" She asks, lower lip trembling. It's fake, though, she had known all along that the two had forgotten about it. But, she knows that she can use this to her advantage. "Forgetted Noodle birthday?" The girl puts as much 'pathetic' and 'hurt' into her voice as possible.

"I didn't forget! I have you lots of presents!" 2D answers with a terrified look. He doesn't like when his best friend is upset. "I even wrapped them! All by myself!"

Noodle gives a sad smile. "Thank a Toochee. Love." Her voice trembles.

"Fuck. Haven't even looked at my calendar in weeks." Murdoc scratches his neck awkwardly. They all look at said calendar; it's still flipped to August. There's a picture of some busty model on it in a yellow bikini on the top, above the actual dates.

"Me either, man. Why didn't you say nothing, baby?"

Noodle frowns. "Um.. Did no want Mu-doc be mad, a yell at Noodle. No good." She admits, burying her face in his shirt. "Scare."

"Oh." Russ replies with another glare at Murdoc. "Fuck that."

"I don't yell at you!" Murdoc insists loudly.

"Um, Murdoc.. You're doing it right now.." 2D says, shy.

"Shut up!"

Noodle sniffles. "No, uhh. No fight." She tries pathetically.

"Look, you're upsettin' her! Knock it out!" Russ looks annoyed. "Baby, I'll take you shopping for whatever ya want tomorrow. And you can get ice cream." He offers, feeling really guilty. The album had distracted him from his kid.

"Nnn.." Noodle mumbles. "A Russel." Is all she says. Really, she just wants to spend time with her boys outside of working on the album. It's all they've been doing recently, and admittedly, she's gotten lonely. "Play with Noodle. Russel, Mu-doc, Toochee. Play?"

"Whatever you want to play." Russ promises. "All of us will with ya."

"But-" Murdoc starts, but gets cut off by another hateful glare from Russel. "Fine." He crosses his arms childishly. Maybe a break will be good for them.

"How exciting! We can bake a cake!" 2D giggles, looking giddy. "A chocolate one!"

Noodle's eyes widen. "Ohh! A, um. A cake for Noodle?" She seems to be picking up some of 2D's excitement.

"I do like a good cake." Murdoc agrees reluctantly.

She squeals a bit, a big smile on her face. "Hai! Noodle cake! Ice, uh, um. Ice cream? Russel?"

"Course, baby-girl. Ain't no birthday without ice cream." Russ chuckles, kissing the top of her head.

"Hmm, good!" She beams at the boys before curling back up in Russel's arms. "Will play with Noodle." Noodle pats the man's cheek, sighing with contentment.

Noodle's birthday was fun. They had somehow managed to surprise her with a big pile of birthday presents. She suspects that Russ and Murdoc had put their differences aside and gone emergency gift shopping once she'd gone down to sleep. Really, she can't remember anything other than falling asleep in Russel's arms about an hour into helping write music. It'd probably been around 21:15, she thinks. She'd woken up in her bed wrapped up in her blankets in the way only Russ knows how to do. There was chocolate milk, (her favourite!), sitting on her night table, much to her surprise.

Once she'd gotten to the kitchen, she had been delighted to find Russel making pancakes. He puts chocolate chips in the batter, which Noodle absolutely adores. She was even more surprised to find all the presents on the table. That was exciting! But how did they get there...?

Once Noodle's been put in her bed, Russel gently wraps the blankets around her. He knows how cold she gets at night, after all, and it always breaks his heart to be woken up by a shivering and upset little girl. He kisses her forehead, and with one last affectionate glance at the sleeping child (his baby-girl is so damned cute), he dims the lights and quietly leaves the room.

"What are you planning?" Says a gruff voice in a whisper. Murdoc's standing outside the door to Noodle's bedroom, his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"Going shopping." Russ replies quietly. The large man stuffs his hands in his pockets. "Gonna get her a shit ton of presents."

"I'm coming. We can pool together our money." Murdoc suggests. Though, it's more a factual statement than a suggestion, the way he says it.

Russ shrugs. "Just don't be an ass or I'll leave you in the car. Imma tell Dee we're going so he can keep an ear out for Noodle. Just in case."

"Right, right. I'll be in the Geep." Murdoc pulls the keys from a hook mounted in the wall next to the lift.

The shopping trip ended up turning into a contest between the two men to see who could find the best gifts. At the end it'll all just come down to Noodle's opinion.

At this point, it's around three by the time they're back, and they still have to giftwrap everything. Russel's getting increasingly short-tempered with Murdoc. He'd tried to convince Russ to let him buy Noodle her first pack of cigarettes; to which Russel so affectionately replied, "You try it, imma break yo fucking neck," with an intensely pissed off expression. "It bad enough that you be smokin' round her all the damn time. She nine, you piece of shit."

Murdoc waves him off. "Not as if she cares, now does she, no?" He says with a shrug. "I don't even think she notices when I am."

"She coughs a ton when you smokin' close to her." Russ points out. "You might at least try to not be such an asshole all the time."-

"Eh." Murdoc shrugs again as he pulls into the car park. "She isn't my kid. You're the one with the legal papers."

"That ain't no excuse. She be looking up to you for some reason. You seen the way she picks things up from us." Russ retorts, sighing as he gets out. "It ain't only about you anymore. We still got a baby girl to take care of." He opens the back door.

The Satanist rolls his eyes. "Oh, fuck off. You're starting to sound like 2-D's mum."

"I got major respect for that woman. Imma take that as a compliment." Grabbing half of the bags from the back seat, he starts toward the lift, feeling annoyingly drowsy. He hopes that Noodle's still asleep; more often than not, the girl climbs into his bed at night because of another nightmare. He's usually awake most of the night so he can watch the news, since he's usually so busy during the day.

Grumbling, Murdoc grabs the remainder of the shopping bags and gets into the lift next to Russel. There's awkward silence until backwards Stairway to Heaven starts up. Russel groans. "This song is shit!" He complains. "It was shit before it was reversed, but it's just. Just fuckin terrible."

Meanwhile, Murdoc's somehow singing along with the backwards vocals. It's a lot of groaning noises since it's not really possible to sound reversed unless you're using a tape recorder, but it's pretty accurate-sounding, all things considered.

A few torturous minutes later, Russ and Murdoc are finally let off. They've got some work to do.

Hey, there! It's like.. 01:00 right now. I forgot to update. So sorry!!!!!!!

This one was fun to write. Lots of laughs, some fluff, and Murdoc being an arsehole. What more could you ask for?

By the way, Russ wins the contest with a fishing rod. She'll be excited to go fishing with her boys!

Until next time,

ELIZABETH


	21. Plasma Screens

Murdoc jolts awake to the sensation of a warm body pressing up against him. Not completely sure what's going on, the man props himself up on his elbow, then reaching to the lamp so he can pull the string. The room lights dimly, as if an orange evening sunset has materialised from nowhere and painted itself across Murdoc's walls.

His vision adjusts enough so he can see who's here in bed with him. Reasonably certain that he hadn't had any bird over last night, it's confusing to him as to why he's not alone. Eventually, it registers in his sleep-lagging mind that it's Noodle who'd disturbed his sleeping. Usually, he'd be upset, but.."Noodle, dove."

Noodle takes a moment to reply. "Mu-doc. Want." She explains tiredly. Her voice is muffled by Murdoc's shirt. "Is cold." The girl tries to get as close to Murdoc as she physically can. He smells of cigarettes and sweat, but that's just part of the whole 'claiming Murdoc's bed while he's in it' endeavour.

Murdoc lets her, chuckling softly. "Is it, now?" His hand gently combs through Noodle's hair. "You've gotten your own blankets for a reason." His accent is especially thick, as it so often gets when he's sleep deprived or very drowsy.

"Hmm.." She presses her ear to rest on his chest, then listening to his heartbeat for a moment. "No good.. Mu-doc. A Mu-doc." Noodle seems to have her mind set on staying in Murdoc's bed. After all, it's her favourite place to sleep aside from Russel's bed. "Noodle stay, yeah?"

"Don't have another choice, then, do I?" Murdoc adjusts his pillow, his other hand resting on Noodle's back. The girl giggles a bit.

"No, Noodle stay." Noodle's breathing seems shallow, now that Murdoc is actually alert to a point. Almost like she'd been running. He frowns.

"You had another nightmare?" He presses, closing his eyes and leaving his head against the headboard. "It's been happening, uh, more often, hasn't it?" Murdoc sighs.

Noodle pauses. "..Hai.. Sleeps bad." She admits, her gaze travelling to his face.

"Want to talk about it, dove?" Offers the man, meeting the child's eyes.

"Can not, um. In.. In right.. Word." She frowns, wishing her spoken English was developed more.

"Right, right. Not enough English." He sighs. "Well. That's okay."

Noodle's mouth curves into a smile. "Hai. Mu-doc. Mu-doc, umm, uh, sleep?"

"Yeah. Long as you will." The Satanist yawns, pulling the lamp string so that the room goes dark. "You want your blanket?" Murdoc smirks.

"Has a blanket." She pulls up Murdoc's comforter over the both of them, not caring that the thing probably hasn't been washed in years. The child sighs with contentment once she realises that the nightlight is on over by the door to the loo. "Sleeps."

"Mhm. Night, dove." Murdoc feels a sudden weight on the space between his neck and right collarbone. The smell of artificial strawberries and vanilla fills his senses as he adjusts his head so it's rested on hers. The child's legs manage to tangle around his right arm, and he doesn't much mind it.

"Loves Mu-doc." She whispers.

Murdoc is startled awake again by the feeling of movement in his bed. The weight is still on his collarbone, and the sound of Noodle's breathing close to his ear. The child mutters in Japanese in her sleep; sometimes even seeming to sing, but he isn't ever upset about it. She's got a real talent for singing. If only she would realise that she's allowed to sing as well as play guitar. No matter.

The Satanist doesn't even bother with the lights at this point. "Who's there?" He mumbles.

There's the sound of a sniff in reply. "Me-- me. Had a.. Um.."' 2D's voice is shakey. The man curls up on the other side of Murdoc.

"Nightmare, eh?" The green man frowns. "I suppose you should tell me about it, hmm?" He lets 2D rest his head on the other part of his collar and twist his long legs around with Murdoc's. He watches the singer take one of Noodle's hands and hold it in his, then resting both on Murdoc's chest.

"Yes-- yeah. I. Um. Dreamed about how I drowned in a swimming pool. And then I dreamed it again. And again. And again. And agai-"

"I get it. One of those dreams where you can't wake yourself up, yeah." He pauses. "You've not even gone swimming in years, though. And you're tall enough to touch bottom if you need to, see."

"But it felt so real!" 2D whines. Noodle whimpers in her sleep.

"Sweet Satan, keep your bloody voice down." Murdoc hisses. "If you go swimming in a pool sometime, we'll get you some of those floating tubes, like those colourful ones in America. How's that?"

The older man feels 2D nod slightly. "Yes. But you were laughing at me. As I drowned. And Noodle was crying, and Russel was dead already."

Murdoc is silent for a moment. "Eh. Maybe I'd laugh a bit towards the beginning." He admits. "But I wouldn't let you die, otherwise I'd be short a singer, now, wouldn't I? And that'd be, er. Inconvenient."

The bluenette hums a bit in reply. "I suppose so."

"Russel won't die. You've seen the man. He's rather like an angry wall of meat or something." The Satanist points out, yawning. "Think you can sleep?"

"Hmm. Yes, I might do that. If. If it's alright with you." Stuart's breath is warm against Murdoc's neck.

The Satanist nods. "It's alright, yes. Just don't kick around too much, you'll wake Noodle. She had a bad night, too. Came in here round an hour ago."

"Oh dear. It's sad she gets nightmares, she's," a yawn, "she's so little."

"Mhm. Think she was lonely, too." Murdoc agrees.

"Ohh. She does get that way a lot, yeah?" Stu gives her hand a gentle squeeze.

"Yes, rather unfortunate. But it's alright, she's sleeping well." Murdoc says. "I think she didn't want to bother Russel, he wasn't feeling well earlier, hmm. Not been getting enough sleep."

"You either." 2D's accent seems to be morphing into something even more incomprehensible than usual.

Murdoc pats 2D's head. "Go to sleep, now. You're too tired to talk."

He feels the younger man nod against his jaw.

Hey, guys!

My school starts on Wednesday. I'm really nervous!

I might not keep updating, not sure yet. But I'll see what happens!

Until next time (?)

Liz


	22. When Winter Comes

(phase 1)

The moment she wakes, the cold of the morning feels as if it is attacking her bare arms; the tiny child cannot help but shiver a bit. The dusty alarm clock reads 04:25, though she can't read it, herself. It is early autumn, the girl vaguely thinks she remembers Murdoc saying just that previous day when she asked for the season.

Kong Studio's heating system is certainly not the most functional of devices; it's rather old and doesn't tend to work correctly but for once in a blue moon. Russel had tried to fix this by purchasing a small space heater for his kid's bedroom, but the room is just big enough that the heater doesn't do much more than circulate slightly-warmed air around towards the cracked window. Still, the Asian girl quickly slides her feet into the pink slippers that lay on the floor beside her bed. She's well aware that she won't be getting much more in the way of sleep until she finds out a way to warm herself up. Blankets don't seem to help much, annoyingly.

She considers summoning Del; her best friend always seems to have great ideas. Besides, the ghost is probably lonely. The girl feels around the wall by her doorframe for the light switch; eventually finding and flipping it up. The room is bathed in yellowish light as she cracks open the door.

"Hallo, Del? Del come Noodle room?" Calls the small girl. She waits a moment, staring down the eerily dark hallway.

"Heya, girl. What you want me for?" A deep voice comes from behind her, one with a heavy Brooklyn accent like Russel's. Their voices are very different, however; Russel's is more gruff. Del's is deep, yes, but also has a bit of an amused tone to it. Chills go up her spine as she whips her head around to gape at the source of the familiar voice.

"You look like you seen a ghost! Ha ha!" The pale blue spirit laughs at his own joke. His laugh is hearty; and Noodle feels a twinge of warmth towards the ghost rapper. She gets the joke, luckily, due to some sort of mystical power translating his words to her native language.

"Um. Del, uh.. Noodle ghost friend." Noodle reminds him, grinning a bit.

Del grins back at her. "New word? Ain't heard ya say 'friend' before." He does a thumbs-up.

"Oh! Uh! Toochee show Noodle. Um. Show Noodle.. New say." She pauses for a moment, knowing that the last part of her sentence didn't make much sense.

"Word, yo. Ya means word." Del corrects, chuckling. He sits down on the floor and glances up at the clock over by Noodle's bed. "It's hella early. Why you still up, baby girl?" The ghost inquires, his head tilting to the side.

Noodle is silent for another moment. She doesn't know the word for how cold she is, so she decides to give up on English again and says in Japanese, "I am awake early because it is too cold to sleep. The heater that Russel put here is not helping me feel warm." The young girl explains, plopping down on the floor next to her friend. There are bumps on her arms from the cold, she notices with annoyance.

"Oh. I see, I see." Del looks to be deep in thought. "Well, it ain't like I can move the thing closer to yo bed, the cord too short. Maybe more blankets?" He suggests, looking down at the child. If he weren't dead, he'd give her a big hug. That'd likely warm her right up. He sighs; what a shame.

Noodle looks up at Del, also obviously thinking. "Blankets are not enough, I am too cold even with all the ones Russel gave me." She complains. "There are four of them on the bed, yeah?"

The ghost rapper is silent again. "Hmm. You either have a fever or need some sorta alternate source of heat." He says cautiously. He'd feel her forehead if he could touch living things. "You feeling okay?"

Noodle frowns. She had noticed a cough developing, but had disregarded it as just dust flying round. "I have been coughing a bit, but that might just be because Russel and Toochee were cleaning." She points out, surveying her body for any other symptoms of potential illness. "I cannot think of anything else."

Del looks at her. "Be careful, baby. This place ain't never clean enough." He warns. "Is there soap in the bathrooms so your hands get washed?" He gestures out towards the hallway. "God knows what kinda germs are all up in here. I'm surprised you ain't ever caught anything worse than a cold." He goes on, tapping his fingers on the floor. He has his chin rested on the palm of his hand, and his expression is that of worry.

"There is soap. Though sometimes I even have to remind Toochee about how clean hands keeps the sick away. Mu-doc does not care, even when I do try to tell him to wash." Noodle scratches her head. "But that does not solve the cold."

Del nods attentively. "Yeah, you right. What we gotta do is, uh. Well. I ain't able to do much in my, uh. Current state. I can tuck you in, though. Do ya got them fleece PJ's still?" The dead man suggests.

"Hmm. Yes, but I cannot reach the top shelf well enough to pull them down. I can jump or climb up, but my arms are too short to reach and I do not want to get her. They are on the very back of the shelf. Towards the wall." Explains the child.

"I could probably reach." Del stands up and opens the door of the closet. The ghost rapper floats up to towards the top shelf. Once he'd retrieved them, the man tosses the clothing to Noodle and grins. "Got 'em. Go ahead and change, I'll wait out in the hall, okay?"

Noodle nods. "Yes, thank you!" She says with a wide grin.

After Noodle has changed clothes, she calls Del back. He floats through the door. "Any better? You already seem like it." He inquires.

"Hm. Good." Noodle's switched back to English. "Noodle sleep, yeah?"

"Ha! Okay, baby girl. I'll tuck ya back in." Del walks to the bed and watches as the young girl climbs into it. "You think you gonna sleep better?"

"Hai. Warm. No cold, see?" She pulls her sleeve up to reveal that the bumps have gone away. "Um, Del. Thank!" Smiling again, the girl blows him a kiss.

"Ha ha! Love you too, baby." Del pulls the blankets over Noodle. He blows the kiss back to her. "Now you get some sleep. I'm gonna leave Russ a note so he don't wake you up so early later." The ghost promises.

Noodle nods. "Love Del. Oyasumi."

"Night night, baby. You sleep good."

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Hello, all!

YES! I've returned to the scene! Glad to be back as February comes to a close. I'll be trying to get this updated more often, if anyone was wondering. Of course, if there are any short story suggestions, I would really love to hear them. I don't have much in the way of ideas, but I'm hoping I'll get more reviews to keep me well motivated.

The second semester of college is going well, I'm very glad to say that I got out of a bad relationship and so I'm finding more time for myself. That also means more time here!

Let me know what you think! The occasional lovely reviews I'm getting keep me from completely abandoning this story, you know?

To Lety, if you're still round! I will try to do that Strobelite request you have there!

Until next time,

Liz


	23. Circle of Friendz

[Phase 4]

Noodle's eyes snap open at the sound of her cat's absolutely pathetic meowing in her ear. "Agh. Katsu." She complains. Sitting up on her tatami, the young woman yawned. Staring listlessly at the wall for a minute or so, Noodle then gets up from the floor. It's way early again. Usually she would sleep in until 13:00 at the earliest. Today it is only 06:43 and she feels exhausted. She had only gone to sleep around three hours ago. Another loud mewl comes from the cat, pulling her out of her sleepy trance. "What do you want now, I'm sleeping!" Complains she with another yawn.

Noodle looks over at the wall where the cat's food and water dishes are placed. The room has a soft glow due to the nightlight plugged into the socket by the lamp. "I forgot to put food in there before bed, yeah?" The woman looks with sympathy towards the tabby. She had gotten a bit tipsy last night between hanging around with Murdoc and 2D and the club and must have just gone to her room to sleep without realizing. "I'll handle that. Sorry, friend."

Standing up, Noodle cracks her back and then opens a cupboard, pulling out dry food for her cat. "You got too hungry to wait, yeah? I guess I understand that. You're less angry when you're hungry than I can be, so I'll tolerate it." She bends down and fills the cat bowl. Feeling sore, she puts the bag of food back. Filming the Strobelite video with 2D had been tiring despite her love of dancing. It had taken all of the previous day, unfortunately.

Noodle doesn't feel up to sleeping again. The ever-present insomnia that seems to run through everyone in the band had unfortunately been given to her as a kid. So, she does something she hadn't done in awhile. Slipping on the night shoes next to her tatami mat, Noodle starts up the stairs to see if anyone else is awake.

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After going up two or three flights of stairs, Noodle closes the door behind herself. The lights are all on, still, but that's old news. None of them were ever hugely comfortable with having the lights off throughout the place. There might not be zombies, but really, there's always the chance of an apocalypse. Better safe than sorry.

Shoving her hands into the pockets of her sweatpants, Noodle starts toward the kitchen. That's always been the first place she looks when she wants the company of her boys. It's most usually Russel there; he sits at the small table often and either watches the news on the tiny black-and-white box television on the kitchen counter or reads the newspaper. Noodle doesn't like this particular hobby much; it stresses Russel out a bit too much. She always has to remind him that he can't fix all the problems going on in the world, and how he should focus more on the 'here and now' instead of the 'then and there'.

Walking through the doorway to the kitchen with another yawn, Noodle is unsurprised to see Russel where she thought he'd be. "What are you doing up?" She asks sternly.

Russ looks up. "Hey, baby. We was so busy earlier with that video and I couldn't watch the news. I had all my shows recorded." He says.

"Russel, you know that it isn't good for you." Noodle sighs, deliberately sitting down in the seat that blocks Russel's view of the telly.

"What are you doing up?" He asks, looking over at the clock on the stove. "It real early to be up, 'specially with how busy yesterday was."

Noodle crosses her arms, leaning back in the chair. "I could say the same for you." She pauses. "I forgot to feed Katsu last night and he woke me up a bit ago."

"Ohh." He scratches his head. "You should head back to sleep." The man advises.

"Not until you do. Tell me, is any of this stuff on the news making you a happier person?" Noodle inquires. She's tired, yes, but he's not going to sleep unless she makes him.

Russel frowns, considering what to say. Of course he wasn't happier with it, but he'd rather know what's going on than be trapped by ignorance. But he refuses to lie to his kid. "Guess not." The drummer replies reluctantly.

"Remember last time? You didn't sleep for days." Now she seems worried. "I know all the news is important and all, but. It's not so important that you need to lose sleep.' Noodle reminds him.

Russ sighs. "Yeah, I know. You right again." He replies. "Though. I ain't sleeping too good anyhow."

Noodle frowns, standing up and opening the refrigerator to retrieve a water bottle. "That isn't okay, you know." She goes over to him and hugs the man. "I want you to stick around for awhile. But what you're doing isn't healthy. I'm worried."

"Don't be, baby. I slept through the whole video, remember?" He hugs her back tightly. "I know being nocturnal ain't the. Uh. Ain't the best, but that how it is."

Her eyes roll. "Hmph. It doesn't have to be." She replies, not letting go. She'd missed cuddles from Russel; they're comforting. "Please get to sleep."

A sigh escapes the man. "Okay. I guess I probably should." He consents. Noodle grins.

"Thank you." She finally leaves his embrace. The fatherly man chuckles.

"Jeez, when did you become the mama of the group?" Russ asks jokingly.

Noodle chuckles. "The minute I got to Kong in that crate." She answers. "Though. You were already the mama."

Chuckling again, Russ gets up. "You right. Guess you's the sister."

"I can't exactly be a brother, then, can I?" Noodle teases as she watches him go towards his room. "Make sure you sleep well, okay?" She requests, giving him a hug. "You need it."

Russel hugs her back. "I'll try my best, baby. You get some sleep too." He answers, pecking the top of her head. "Night night." He starts down the corridor.

"Night, Russ!"

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Hello, all! This one was obviously half-arsed, I lost motivation mid-ways. No big deal, yeah? I'm not going to let it bother me. My next one will be the lovely prompt that a guest left me! Thank you for that; I really like the idea! Best wishes to you!

Looking forward to break. I really need one; the homework is tedious. That reminds me- I have a test later today that I need to study for... And three homework sheets due tomorrow for electrical class.. and a worksheet due for Criminal Justice class... And an entire four pages worth of questions due for logic class... Ah, well. College is tricky.

Hope you're well!

Until next time,

Liz


	24. Busted and Blue

[Phase ???]

"And so he left. I don't think I will see him again, even if I would do anything for it."

Noodle stares through the glass placed in front of her. The idea of a stupid boy being able to hurt her head like this makes her head spin. She's used to basic disappointments and being separated from her family once in a while, but someone outside the family leaving her is an entirely new feeling. She doesn't much like it. Not that she likes any of her boys leaving; but this is a bit different.

"Oh, love. You could have said that earlier, we could have tied him down and made him stay. Moving away at the drop of a hat is a shite thing to do, especially to my guitarist." Murdoc's eyes wander from the newspaper for a moment, a slight frown gracing his face.

"You know that is not nice to do. He had his reasons, and I do not want to force him to stay. It just is not fair and I do not like this feeling." The Japanese teen sighs, putting her head between her arms. "It is like I feel ill, but not a sickness. Just hurt." She describes. There's a knot in her stomach, and the mood she's in is an all time low. Definitely not a good feeling. Murdoc doesn't reply for a moment.

"Oh, dear. This sounds like a case of. . ." The green man trails off. "No. It can't be. Absolutely no way."

The girl's head shoots up. "What is it?!" She demands, a tad alarmed. Standing up quickly, Murdoc storms out of the room.

"Stay put!" He says curtly. Noodle can hear the raspy bark of the man come from the hallway. She hears the buzz of one of the old intercoms being pressed. "Russel, Faceache! Come down here right now, it's very bloody urgent!" Sounds the man; the intercom speaker in the room she is in, the kitchen, had gone off with the message meant for the other boys. Murdoc must have hit the button that sends the message through the whole studio again. Storming back in, Murdoc sits down back at his spot at the table. "I've gone and called the other two to discuss this issue at hand." He explains.

"You never told me what the issue is," replies she, and rather impatiently at that.

"Sweet Satan, girl. Wait a moment, you won't understand it without the others round." Murdoc counters, lacing his fingers together on the table. Knowing she won't get anywhere without the others, she sighs and puts her head back down on the table. It takes around three minutes for both men to be down in the kitchen. Stuart comes down looking rather frazzled, whilst Russel arrives seeming extremely annoyed. "Sit." Murdoc instructs.

"What the deal with you callin' me and wakin' me up from my nap? I oughta break that nose of yours again." Russ threatens, the burning glare from his listless eyes causing 2D to flinch despite said glare not being directed at him.

"Hey, what's the matter with Noodle?" The singer suddenly asks, momentarily forgetting how scary Russel is.

"Ah! Precisely why I called the two of you down. I'm afraid, um. She appears to, have, uh. A rather large case of the heartbreaks. The bloke she was with decided to ditch her for moving to France. Seems to have broken her ticker there." The bassist replies.

"Hold up, hold up. I'm sure I ain't heard you right. You didn't just say he broke my baby's heart, I must be trippin'. I gotta be trippin'." Russ' anger seems to have grown, though, luckily, this time it's directed at the boy Murdoc is referring to.

Even 2D looks angry. "Lemme at him! I'll show him he can't just go round breaking Noodle's heart without getting socked!" He tries to look tough, before abandoning the sad charade all together and going over to Noodle. "Are you doing alright, luv? Uh. That's a silly question. Sorry." He sits down in one of the chairs next to her. Noodle doesn't reply with much other than a sigh. She doesn't feel like talking, especially not about her current predicament. To be honest, she doesn't know what she wants at this point other than to try drinking whatever drink Murdoc does when he wants to forget. It usually seems to work, even if it often results in violent rampages. "Hello? Russel, she won't talk. That isn't a good sign; not a good sign at all." 2D is now rather worried.

"Huh?" Russ forgets his anger for a moment and walks over to the girl. "Hey, baby girl. Not doin' too well, yeah?" Taking the other seat next to her, he sighs. Noodle stays silent, but decides to revert to being a small child and climb into Russel's arms. There's always room there, and he makes her feel safe again.

"Well. Are we going to track the bloke down and maim him or.. or something?" 2D turns to Murdoc, who'd gone back to reading his paper.

"Up to her." Replies the bassist absentmindedly. "I won't bother if she'll throw a fit because of it, though." He adds, turning the page.

"Hmm. . . I see. . ." The blunette scratches his head. "Maybe she would like some chocolate? That always helped me. Delicious stuff."

Noodle shakes her head.

"I think we should go watch a movie in the den. Gettin' her mind off of it might be a good thing." Russ suggests. No one dares to argue, so the three (and Noodle, still nestled in the large man's embrace,) start torwards the den.

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It was around halfway through the horror movie when Noodle finally dozed off. The boys all being there in the room was a definite help, and made her feel okay enough to fall asleep. Maybe she'll feel a bit better when she wakes.

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Hello, all!

I haven't died, I swear it!! I'd figured I would surprise you all with a little snapshot, even if it's rather short.

The inspiration for this is actually taken from my own recent experience. It had honestly made me wonder what the boys might do if some guy broke her heart. Maybe I'll add a second part to it!!

I'm starting my second year of college tomorrow!! It's been an absolutely fantastic summer, and I sincerely hope you had one as lovely as mine! I'll try to update more often, promise!!

Until next time,

Liz


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